Looking Back at Nanking

The Voyage to Nanjing

The idea for a trip to Nanjing came in the middle of the week when a fellow student on our program on our program was dying to go to Nanjing, and coincidentally there was a graduate program open house that same weekend. So, my decision was set, a full two days before the trip. So going into the trip, we had no plans other than to visit the graduate school program. On the train, we took out our Lonely Planet book and figured out what exactly we wanted to see. The train ride was a pretty interesting experience given that we were the only foreigners on the train (that we could see). We met a doctor from Hubei Province and a few other Nanjing natives. Most of the time on the sleeper train was spent talking with them in Chinese about random things and they gave us some advice on what to see in Nanjing. Although we all didn’t get much sleep, we had lots of energy getting off the train and were all excited to see Nanjing, a city we wound not get to see on the end of the year trek around China. First we grabbed McDonald’s, even though it was 10:30am and really expensive, because we were all dying of hunger and couldn’t spot any places to eat in the area. After this we went straight to the Graduate Program at Nanjing University (collaborating with Johns Hopkins University) to check out the open house and since a few of the kids were staying in their housing at the program it made sense for this stop. We got a short tour of the facilities there, which were beautiful, and had a chance to ask some questions about the program. I discovered that all of the classes were taught in Chinese and the program was split 50/50 between Chinese and foreign students. The Graduate Program was for an MA in International Studies, so naturally all of the students had to write their own thesis in Chinese. It all sounded a little too advanced for my current level of Chinese, but it was definitely something I will consider in the future. That afternoon, I went with the rest of the kids in the program to find a hostel, which turned out to be an easy find since we had done a bit of homework before the trip (35 kuai/night close to the University…not a bad deal at all, and it even had clean showers! Amazing!). After the housing situation was straightened out, a few kids in the program and I were off to the Museum of the Nanking Massacre, which was the famous slaughter and rape of Chinese citizens in Nanjing when the Japanese attacked in the 1940s. It turned out that the museum was under renovation so we couldn’t get in but we did have a chance to walk through the construction. Past the giant cranes ripping apart houses next to the museum to presumably make more room for additions, we happened upon a bunch of people selling things on the street inside the construction site. Among the sellers with their blankets and merchandise sprawled out upon blankets, were a few men getting a haircut. This was quite the scene. Upon a massive construction site with rubble and leveled houses everywhere, spotting two older men sitting in high chairs, having their haircut, just going about their business, enjoying the pleasant fall weather. Later that afternoon we made our way over to the Nanjing Museum, one of the best ancient art museums in China. On the previous Wednesday in my Chinese Arts and Culture class, my professor used a lot of examples of pieces from the Museum in his lesson so it was neat to see the same pieces in person. I was especially interested in the porcelain pieces because we had just recently discussed the symbolism of images on Chinese porcelain pieces as well as the difficulty in creating the finest porcelain. The next day in the morning some of our friends were taking a test for the Graduate Program so we went to see the Taiping Rebellion Museum. The rebellion is one of the more bizarre religious uprisings I have heard. The leader of the Taipings thought that he was a reborn form of Jesus Christ and thought that he should be the leader of China. Inevitably the rebellion was quelled and the emperor continued to rule, but learning about the history of the rebellion and seeing some of the artifacts left over from the event was interesting. Outside of the museum were some of emperor’s gardens, which were well kept. That night we all went out for dinner with a friend’s teacher of one of the kids with us. He brought us to a pedestrian food street, where we tried out all the regional specialties of the region. We tried duck neck and lots of other strange snacks and then had dinner together. The next day we all went to see Dr. Sun Yatsen’s Mausoleum, which was one of the highlights of the trip for me. The area that the Mausoleum covered was incredible. First we entered a gate with prominent Nationalist symbols, since Sun Yatsen was the leader of the Nationalists, but also considered the founder of the People’s Republic of China as we know it today even though the communists would eventually prevail in the Civil War. Walking down a long walkway boarded by pine trees, we came to a small structure that had part of the Nationalist national anthem written in stone and then preceded to walk up hundreds of stairs to his resting place. At the top of the endless stairs, I could see all of Nanjing and the landscape around the city. Walking into the first chamber, I saw a huge stone Sun Yat-sen sitting a chair comfortable in a similar way to the Lincoln Memorial. Through this room was the actual Mausoleum itself. Inside the center of a circular room was Sun Yat-sen buried deep underneath a stone replica of Sun Yat-sen lying inside his coffin. I was totally blown away by the massive scale of it all. After seeing the entire mausoleum, I understood how revered the man is by all of China. That night we had to grab the night train since all of the other trains were sold out. It also turned out we couldn't get a sleeper so we had a hard seat for the whole ride. I don’t think people understand what it is like to not have a sleeper on an overnight train although most of the train is either hard seats or standing room only. I couldn’t sleep at all but I still made it back to Beijing on Sunday and felt back at home again.
The instant I made it back to my room I got a call from my assistant at the school I teach. She wanted to take my out hiking for the day with her family, so I couldn’t refuse although I was dead tired. She said they were waiting in their car at the middle school so I rushed over on my bike to the school and we all went to Bai Wang Shan, on the outskirts of Beijing. It was a beautiful, sunny day in the fall and the leaves finally were turning red. We walked around together and my assistant’s daughter gave my a few leaves that she found in the park. After this, they took me out for dinner at a restaurant in the area. The day was incredible and I felt like I was a part of a Chinese family for a day.

The Past 2 Weeks In Sight

Bai Wang Shan park outside of Beijing with my English class helper's family.

Nanjing: Looking down from Sun Yat-Sen's Mausoleum.

Waiting in line to get on the metro. This is Sunday morning. Notice the crowd.

At the Natural History Museum. No Admittance into the Tiger/Bear Pit.

At a figure painter's studio. Here the artist, known for painting passive eagles is doing Hope's portrait.

Since I haven't been able to post new pics on my Picassa account and the internet is not cooperating here, I put up these pictures from the last 2 weeks. Soon these pictures will have proper captions and stories to go along with them. I'm hoping to get it up sometime in the next few days.

上海 Shanghai (The Last-Minute Adventure)

Again, the updates are not coming as quick as I would like, but they will come when I am able to write. The Shanghai trip originated from one Wednesday night, when I was at an artist's studio for my Chinese Arts and Culture class. I received a text message from a kid in my program who told me that there were relatively cheap tickets to Shanghai Friday afternoon. We decided to go ahead and get the tickets since our class was postponed that afternoon and we weren't going to go to Shanghai during the end of the year trip. Flash forward to the day of the trip...three of us headed out to the airport and flew a little over 2 hours to Shanghai. We arrived at about 6 and found our way to a hostel that a friend recommended. It was in the downtown area right on the Bund. The location was great and the place was clean and cheap. After checking in, we went out to grab dinner and explore the Bund area. It was a really spectacular sight at night (as you can see at the top of my blog now). Across the river I was just overtaken by a sea of lights coming from futuristic skyscrapers. Was I really in China or a different country or a different world? I still do not know. Of course on the boardwalk along the Bund there were lots of people trying to sell me stuff. I did see some interesting things, such as DJs blasting and selling their mixes, people selling kites flying in the building-lit sky, lots of plastic pigs and tomatoes being thrown into the pavement, and small metal light-up spinning tops. Immediately we were all hit with the stark contrast between new and old and China vs. the outside world. On one side of the river, the skyscrapers tower above all else, representing the future of China, while directly on the other side of the river lies European architecture. The old WWI era spheres of influence were clear everywhere I could see.

The next morning we went on a river boat tour of the Bund and got a little bit of history about the area. Going to the side of the Bund with the skyscrapers, we had to go through the "Bund Sightseeing Tunnel". This tunnel was no ordinary tunnel. It was from the future. Upon getting on a silver pod connected to tracks the doors magically closed and we were off. Soon lights began flashing all around us and we were sucked into another world, filled with magma, shooting stars, and dummies filled with air. It was perhaps the most amazing thing I've ever experienced. The special effects coupled together with the B-movie presentation put this one over the top for me. If you go to Shanghai, GO ON THE BUND SIGHTSEEING TUNNEL. We were all happy that we chose the round trip ticket, to say the least. The river tour was pretty neat but we couldn't go up to the roof since we were cheapskates and refused to pay the extra 10 kuai. After the tour, it we went up to highest bar in the world (actually this happened before the river boat tour but you don't know the difference). At the highest bar in the world, all of Shanghai looked like a scale model. Actually seeing Shanghai from above reminded me of Seoul from the Seoul Tower. Skyscrapers were literally everywhere the eye could see, except for the river. After our time in the Bund area it was onward to the French Concession. We took some time to go on the Lonely Planet communist sites walking tour and saw Sun Yat-Sen’s former residencce, Zhou Enlai’s place, where the PRC was officially signed into existence, and places where Mao crashed for a few nights. After the Communist sightseeing tour we all went to the Paulaner Brauerei! That’s right the Paulaner Brauerei! This is one of München’s finest beers, and in Shanghai there was an actual Paulaner Brauerei German restaurant. Incredible. The French Concession felt like I was being transported to Europe. The architecture showed no resemblance at all to traditional Chinese buildings. Most that we saw in the residential areas had huge gardens and ornate metal fences serving as garage doors. The shopping areas were filed with American and European expensive brand name stores and malls. We definitely had arrived in China-Europe. Well, after a great German dinner it was off to a place called ARK for some great Chinese pop, featuring pop stars in-the-making. The highlight of the night was definitely the 40-something woman wailing on the guitar with extended guitar solos. If you (the Chinese woman on guitar) are reading this, I want to tell you that you have an incredible skill and can do anything you want in life. She was that good!

The next morning we all woke up, grabbed some zaofan (breakfast), and checked out. We went off to one of best art museums in China, the Shanghai Museum. The museum was huge and we ended up seeing the calligraphy, bronze, Buddah, porcelain, traditional garmets/minority groups, painting, and other exhibits. I enjoyed the bronze exhibit the most because of the wide variety of bronze and incredible carved details. The museum as a whole was very clean and well laid-out. If you go to Shanghai, definitely stop here. They have an amazing collection. After the museum with a quick lunch break at a Uyghur restaurant, we stopped at a restaurant in the French Concession. This restaurant literally had no sign. The only way you would go there would be if you knew about it ahead of time. So, we went to the solid metal door and we saw a bunch of holes. We thought this was strange so we tried putting our hands in the holes to open the door. Suddenly a door slid open on our right and a mirror appeared. I could see the restaurant but I was looking at the restaurant’s reflection. So I turned and walked into the dark, shady restaurant laughing at the hours of thought that it would take to think of such a novel idea.

From Pingyao to Datong by Bus

The delays of updating this blog are terrible. I am sorry for the wait. I literally have to force myself to sit down and write to catch up with all that has happened. Being in the midst of a Red Sox postseason and midterms is not a good recipe for blog writing. Well, here it goes: I'm going to try to recall our trip to Shanxi Province a few weeks ago. Above is a picture from the incredible Datong Grattoes which I'll get to later in the post. First we took the bus to Pingyao, which is one of the four cities left in all of China that has retained the architecture from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Considering how large China is, I think this is a really sad situation. With China's fast development has come the destruction of a lot of treasured villages, artifacts, and history. In Beijing I see bulldozers and cranes taking out buildings that appear to be hundreds of years old. From talking with a professor who lives here in the international housing, I have acquired a real sense of how much the city has changed in just the past five years. When arriving at the gates of Pingyao's old city, I felt as though I was entering a movie set for "Raise the Red Lantern". We walked toward the hostel we would be staying for several days and all of a sudden, a drum and gong troupe marched past us. Each home along the road was marked clearly in red paint above the entrance. Sudden narrow alleyways would appear on either side of us and continue for what seemed like forever. The sudden quietness in Pingyao was especially prevalent as no cars were allowed inside the town gates. Another quick observation I made, the streets and storefronts were covered in coal. I learned later that Pingyao has one of the deepest reserves of coal in all of China. Ha, it seemed even more polluted than Beijing! Above the traditional roofs in the distance tall smokestacks were always present. The day following a night of exploring the Pingyao streets, we were free to explore all of the museums and other Pingyao sights. The Taoist temple, old government building, and outer town wall were definite highlights of the day. When entering the gates of the Taoist temple, we were greeted by giant 50 foot guards with spears and animal masks. They were pretty intimidating, especially in the position of guarding the entrance. Inside the gate, we came upon huge intense sticks and large statues inside the actually prayer room. It was neat to see Chinese people pray there because the customs were so interesting. After some people prayed, I could tell that the leaders of the temple tried to convert them and ask for donations. Most people refused that we saw for the short time we were there. Later we walked on top of the old wall around the town. The contrast between the old city and "modern Pingyao" was amazing. Outside of the gates, cars raced along the roads and black smoke ascended from the tall smoke stacks. At the old government complex, the highlight was seeing the prison cells and torture equipment. The cells looked really uncomfortable and the torture equipment was brutal. And these facilities were in use until about 10 years ago. That was a disturbing moment when I read a plaque that disclosed that information.

So, later in the day we all met and went off to Taiyuan, which was about a 2 hour drive. Oh, I forgot to mention that the drive from Beijing to Pingyao took about 9 hours. It was a lot of riding in the bus, but I can see how the program wanted us to be able to see as much as possible during our time off from classes. The only problem was that all of China had the same time off because of the national holiday, so it was packed everywhere we went. Haha, every place is usually crowded in China anyway because its China! Anyway, our next stop was a famous temple in Taiyuan called Jinci. Everything in the temple dated back thousands of years. The main temple was built entirely out of wood, which is a very rare sight in China. There were stones that had carved inscriptions of the history of the Tang Dynasty. The temple also had some famous trees that are estimated to be over two thousand years old. It was mind-blowing how old everything was there. After a few hours of exploring the area we were supposed to go to an old military general's residence but the rain washed away the visit. Instead we went straight to Datong to see the Buddist Grottoes. On our bus ride there we drove on roads with giant crater-sized holes. The wild ride consisted of weaving in and out of the potholes, including driving straight onto oncoming traffic. Everyone was slightly fearing for their lives because of the crazy driver's mindless decisions, but we made it safely to Datong. The Grottoes were incredible. Imagine entering caves filled with thousands and thousands of Buddha statues. Imagine witnessing Buddhas hundreds of feet tall. This is what I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to see. There were about 20 to 30 caves open to the public, but more that were under restoration. It was saddening to see some of the caves withering away from all of the camera bulb flashes and touching of the artifacts. Hopefully they will find a way to protect the caves and outer statues from being withered away by outside elements. The Datong Grottoes are truly a wonder that you need to see to believe.

In my next entry I'll tackle the Shanghai trip that two friends and I undertook a few weekends ago. The title picture is from that trip, showing The Bund at night in all its glory. I will be regularly changing the title picture so you can see new pictures before I upload them to my Picassa album. It takes forever to do and sometimes doesn't work at all, so have patience with the pictures. Anyway, I just want to let you all know in case you haven't heard...THE BOSTON RED SOX ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!

The Epic Bicycle Voyage from Beida to Tiananmen on National Day

This crazy adventure started after lunch on October 1st, National Day. After eating some tasty Baozi (bread with various meat/vegetable fillings), I was walking back to Shaoyuan, the international dorm on campus, with a few friends and then George asked me if I wanted to bike to Tiananmen Square. Before this moment, I thought we would just take the Ditie (subway) and brave the huge crowds trying to make it to the Square on the day the PRC was founded. After thinking for a moment, I thought why not bike there?! It would be a great adventure and I would get to see a lot of Beijing that I'd never seen before. At that point, I was still leery of riding my bike on the street with cars, buses, and lots of other bikes everywhere. In Beijing, transportation really is just one big free for all. Anyway, we took off at around 1pm out of the Southwest gate and headed south for a while. Ha, before we left, we glanced at a map for a rough idea of the route to get there. The trip consisted of lots of weaving amongst the traffic, walking our bikes over overpasses, and trying to maneuver in the bike lane for a clear path with the other bikes. The weather was perfect for a long bike ride, it was in the high 60s with a nice breeze. Along the way, we found some interesting things. One such thing was a museum with a giant dinosaur outside. I don't think that I have ever seen a life-size scale model of a dinosaur outside of a museum before. On the way back from Tiananmen, we spotted the PLA Sing and Dance Center. Anyway, throughout the ride, I could get a real sense of the city's pulse. Starting out in the technology district near Beida quickly became residential and then finally traditional architecture came upon us. We knew that we were near Tiananmen when all of the store fronts had traditional roofing and the crowds started to pick up. Eventually we arrived at the outer wall of the Forbidden City and then came to Tiananmen Square. What a sight it was on National Day! The sidewalks leading to the square were so packed you could not see pavement. It was like my old Chinese professor said, "Ren Hai Ren Shan" (people mountain people ocean). The streets around Tiananmen were closed off in anticipation of all the people so the road was totally empty. Riding along the outside of the Square was a cool moment. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as if each frame lasted an entire minute. From the kids waving the Chinese National Flag to the massive security presence around and in the square to the families posing in front of Mao Zedong's huge portrait in the background to the beautiful flowers everywhere. It seemed surreal. After locking the bikes up, we headed out into the Square and saw a lot of special showings for the occasion. A large portrait of Sun Yat Sen was in the center of the square with large banners on his right and left. Sun Yat Sen is thought of as the founder of modern China, although he was a Nationalist, not a Communist. We also checked out the Olympics exhibition created for the holiday. There were giant hedges carved to appear like various Olympic athletes (tennis, basketball, soccer, badminton, etc.). Then, on the opposite side, was all of China's great wonders, such as the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, and the Forbidden City. It was quite the sight, and we didn't spot many foreigners. We were quite the popular photo-op for the Chinese tourists. It helped that I was wearing my Wo Ai Zhong Guo" shirt (I love China). Since it was written in characters, a lot of people asked me about it and wanted their picture taken with me. China's National Day reminded me of the 4th of July without the party atmosphere. Everyone celebrated their country with family and friends without all of the bells and whistles that we attach to the day in the US. I think part of it has to do with the commercialization of the holiday over the years. After the day was over, I logged about 3.5 to 4 hours on my new bike. The day was another experience I won't forget anytime soon.

京666666 (The Beginning of the Reemergence of this Blog)

What you are reading in the title of this post is what might be the luckiest license plate you could own in all of China. I actually saw a truck with this exact license plate at a gas station somewhere in Shanxi province this past week on our National Day Holiday trip and I knew right away that it had to be a person in the government. Who else would have the guanxi (connections) to get a plate with a number like that?

Alright, so due to the lack of updates and the heaps of material pilling up in my head that needs to see the light of day on this blog, I am going to post every couple days until I catch upon everything. I'll start with Fall Break, or you could say National Day Holiday Break. To start off the break, I played some pickup soccer at a nearby park near Tsinghua University which is just across the way from East Gate at PKU. My friend Althea and I biked down to the fields with our cleats and started passing a ball around with random people there. This soon evolved into a full-fledged 4v4 game which I wasn't ready for, at least at the level of play these guys were playing at. A Chinese friend of mine was telling me that I may be able to join his team after the break so I wanted to get some practice in. Communication took some time to get used to in terms of navigating the field and shouting instructions to my teammates but I remembered a lot of the terms from my last experience at Beida playing pickup soccer. The week before Althea and I went over to the soccer fields on a track-like surface and ended up playing in a chain-link fenced field with a bunch of Chinese college kids. I learned the words for "pass" and "shoot", as well as "goal" and "good shot" which came in really handy. I still remember walking out there seeing kids on the opposite end of the fields doing Tai Qi and Wu Shu (Martial Arts) and then other kids playing basketball on another part of the field. It was really interesting to see the mix of people in one place at the same time.

The next day I decided to go to the Temple of Heaven with some friends. This was the one major site in Beijing the program didn't take us to in the Summer so I really want to go see it. We ended up riding our bikes down to the Wudaokou Ditie (subway) and then riding all the way to southern Beijing and walking about 20 minutes from that stop to the Temple of Heaven. Walking down to the site, we ended up seeing beautiful flowers freshly planted alongside tall walls. Inside each section of the wall was a framed picture of some sort of cultural Chinese art piece. This seemed to me like some of the best pieces of sidewalk in all of Beijing. Only then did I realize that behind the walls were what the government was trying to hide with the flowers and framed cultural pieces, ramshackle housing and people living under very poor conditions. It was quite amazing to see such a stark contrast like that. This road to the Temple of Heaven actually continued all the way to the site. When we reached the park on the outside of the TOH, I was surprised by how massive it really is. From pictures I had seen before, I only thought it consisted of one main temple. My preconceptions were altered when I entered through the gates. After a few hundred yards of walking through a lush, green forest and walkway lined with pines, we finally reached the famous temple that the TOH is known for. At this main temple, the emperor would pray to the heavens for a good harvest and a long life among other things. There were a few interesting displaces specially created for National Day and the coming of the Olympics, which included an array of flowers made to look like the Olympic rings and a mosaic of plants shaped like a full moon above cypress trees (symbolizing a happy life and prosperity for all Chinese people). After looking through several smaller temples, we grabbed some tasty lunch (rice, a chicken and potato dish, and some tofu) and then went to the Echo Wall and the Circular Mount Altar. At the Echo Wall you can supposedly hear someone whisper from the opposite end of the circular wall but it was so renao (bustling with noise and excitement...yes that is the actual translation haha) that it was impossible to try it. The Chinese tourists there were yelling things like "NI HAO!!!" and "NI TING WO SHUO MA?!?" It was a really humorous sight given that you were supposed to whisper for it to work in theory. At the Circular Mount Altar, around which sacrifices were carried out, tourists would stand in the middle and put their arms up in the air in a triumphant pose. It was entertaining just to watch the Chinese tourists. I spotted another group taking a family shot at an alter which was used for sacrificing cows and other animals. I don't think I would want to look back at a family picture and see it was at a place used to sacrifice animals. Anyway, we spent most of the afternoon exploring the grounds and walking through the giant park. It was a great day to walk around and enjoy a rare but more common Beijing blue sky day.

Tomorrow I'll work on the epic voyage/bikeride from Peking University to Tiananmen Square on National Day and maybe even get to the Shanxi trip which our entire group went on last week. I'm also trying to post pictures from the past few weeks so hopefully those make it up on the site within the next few days. For now I'll leave you with some YouTube footage of Jay Chou, China's mega-super-pop/rock/rap star. Enjoy.

Bargaining and Concerting

Last weekend I experienced the ultimate bargaining experience: The Silk Market. Imagine walking into a room and have a million people yell at you with offers and wanting you to buy something. Imagine being grabbed by the arm with a Vulcan grip that doesn't let go and drags you into a stall to buy things. Imagine having people scream at you demanding your ice cream on a stick. Yes, all of this happened to me at the Silk Market. It was like a scene out of a distant planet. Well, my mission was to buy clothes and shoes for my internship in Beijing that is part of my program this fall. So I guess I should have been expecting the craziness that was about to unfold. First I went around the indoor-mall-on-steroids-like market to see where everything was and pick my battles. Most of the salespeople started upwards of 1000 kuai for a shirt or pair of pants but I ended up bargaining them down to around 100 kuai. I figured out that the only way to get a good price was to bargain solely in Chinese. While buying shirts, the women at the stall demanded that I buy them ice cream for the deal to be completed. I laughed in their face when they told me this but there were serious. It took me a long time to decide to actually follow through with their wishes. Coming back into the market from outside with the ice creams, my friend and I were met with hostility. All of the vendors around us saw what we had and pounced. They all descended upon us and demanded that we give them our ice cream. We ended up taking a picture eating the ice cream with the vendors I bought the shirts from. It was pretty incredible to see so much bootleg merch concentrated in one place with the government's approval. I don't think a Silk Market could happen anywhere else in the world.

Part 2 of the post is dedicated to the Beijing Pop Festival this past weekend. This festival was probably the most fun I've had at a concert. So, and and some friends ended up taking the bus down to Chaoyang Park, about an hour away from campus. When we finally got to the venue we found a big amusement park just outside the stages/merch/food area. It took a while to figure out where to buy tickets but we found a white van with a tickets sign on it that seemed right. We went straight to the main stage because the bands we wanted to see were all there. First up was the Japanese band RaIN: rock and inspriration. This band is the most epic band ever to set sights on a stage, period. No one will ever eclipse them. The only way I can describe this band is 80s hair death metal. Epic guitar solos were everywhere and every song ended with the bass player throwing his guitar down to the stage. I was waiting for the lead guitarist to light his guitar on fire. Next up was Markey Ramone, the drummer from the Ramones! He had a backing band that were not so good but the comedy factor of the lead singer did not get old throughout the show. At the beginning of every song he yelled, "1,2,3,4!!!" The crowd was really into it and they did a solid job of pulling off the classic Ramones songs. Next up was Cuijian, the man who invented rock music in China and was a major political voice for a long time. He was banned from playing live shows for some time but the people loved him so the government couldn't hold him back. Anyway, the show was great. People were waving giant red flags with his face imprinted on it and singing the choruses in Chinese. Closing the night was Nine Inch Nails. I don't know how they found a way into China to play but somehow they did. Their new album was about a fascist regime who was overthrown by the people. The show was really wild and I felt lucky emerging from the show without getting hurt. The entire crowd seemed to transform into a giant mosh pit. The festival was a really incredible experience that I will always remember.

Somehow the third week of the semester is already starting tomorrow. Since this past weekend's music festival my roommates and I have put up propaganda posters that we bought on campus up around the room and opened up a lot of space. The posters are pretty neat because they are from all of the different periods of Mao's rule in China. Some of them are pretty humorous, such as one that shows the West as capitalists waving money in the air with soldiers descending upon them. I also went on a visit to a Beijing artist's studio on the 15th. It was a great experience seeing a Chinese painter demonstrating how to paint landscapes and draw calligraphy. Our professor told us that he will try to arrange more visits to different studios and museums. One other thing that happened this past week was my first English lesson. The kids in my English class are 8 and 9 years old and really wild. It might be hard to control them. Ha. But teaching is great for my Chinese because I will have to explain a lot of words and concepts in Chinese. It should be a lot of fun.

***All of the pictures are updated with captions so definitely check them out!

End of Korea/New Beginnings in Beijing

I'm back in Beijing and settled now after about 10 days in Korea. I didn't wrap up my time in Korea so here it goes. On last Thursday Charlie and I went to the DMZ on a guided tour. We met up with the group at a hotel in downtown Seoul which included some interesting people from the US who are living in Japan teaching English. They thought that Korea was cheap! And they talked about how everyone is so polite in Japan. I couldn't believe what they were saying. It was like talking to people from outer space. Later we made it to the DMZ and we were told we could only take pictures at certain places due to security. The DMZ was much different than I had imagined. Going into the DMZ seemed as if we were going into a war zone which we really were doing, I just never thought it would look the way it did. Its amazing to thing that the two Koreas have been at war for over 50 years and never signed a peace treaty. After entering the DMZ zone, we walked through the 3rd infiltration tunnel with hard hats. In the 1980s the South Koreans found these tunnels that were built by the North Koreans to invade. The 3rd tunnel was built to accommodate thousands of soldiers per hour crossing over the border. It was a chilling to walk around through the tunnels while water droplets seeped through the cracks of the walls onto my helmet. Later on we went to the observation deck and saw the demarcation line with our own eyes. Our last day in Korea began with pancakes. Charlie and I decided to make an American breakfast of banana/apple pancakes and orange juice. After this we met up with friends to walk around Yoonmi's school and a street selling traditional Korean crafts. For dinner we had traditional Korean food which was really tasty. Leaving Seoul was difficult but had to be done. It was great seeing Yoonmi and our other Korean friends for a while.

So now we are back in Beijing and almost settled in at Beida. Since the homestay didn't work out for a lot of complicated reasons, I'll be staying on campus in the international student dorm. It's actually a more much convenient since I will be right next to my classes. Classes are starting again and I've had some interesting experiences to say the least. One of these experiences has been the Silk Market. What was originally just a short shopping run to pick up clothes for my internship turned into a comedic workshop on bargaining. More on that to come. I've also made several trips back to Yao Fangzi (The Medicine House) which have been great. I had the spiciest and hottest Huoguo (Hotpot) I'll ever have. Getting to the Silk Market let me experience the Beijing Subway for the first time. I had my first Beijing Kaoya (Roast Duck) experience. I found out that I'll be teaching English to Chinese kindergarteners this semester. I even caught a glimpse of the Beijing music scene last night. This weekend (the 8th and 9th) is the Beijing Pop Festival which features Public Enemy and Nine Inch Nails. Not what a lot of people would characterize as pop music and not the sort of bands a communist country such as China would be likely to invite to the country's biggest music festival. Public Enemy has long been a revolutionary hip hop group and Nine Inch Nails just came out with a record about a fascist state overthrown by the people. Hmm. I'll definitely be there.

Annyong (Seoul Day 3)

On Wednesday morning Charlie and I hopped a cab to the Yantai Airport to fly Korean Air into Incheon, South Korea. The flight was really short, about 50 minutes and the flight attendants gave everyone newspapers which was cool. When we arrived at the Incheon airport, it was as if we landed on another planet. Korea is completely different from China. The airport was one of the nicest I've ever scene. All of the airport staff were really friendly and the facilities were top notch. Outside there were palm trees and lush vegetation welcoming its visitors to Korea. So we found the right limousine bus that supposedly would drop us off in downtown Seoul where our friend lives. When we got in the bus, Charlie and I were shocked to find seat belts. Korea actually has safety standards?!? After the bus driver checked everyone's seatbelt we were off toward downtown Seoul and proceeded to watch a half hour of models showing off all the latest fashions (we didn't choose to watch it, it was on a Samsung screen in front of us). Which brings me to why Seoul and Korea is so bang (great or amazing).

Why Seoul/Korea is So Bang:
1. Bakeries on every corner - Heavenly bakeries filled with things that make your body feel good. Real bread, bagels, pastries of all varieties, cream cheese filled bread...you can find it all here.

2. A great metro system - Reminds me of the NYC subway a hundred times cleaner and more high-tech. There are flat screen monitors showing live TV interspersed with safety videos featuring a man holding a bottle of liquid with one hand and using his other hand to light it on fire, and security guards tackling him before he can do anything. The metro cars also feature a luggage rack for anything you don't want to carry and either a Mario or Fanfare ring depending on if its just a regular stop (Mario ring) or if its a major transfer point (Fanfare ring). The rings tend to wake people up if they miss a stop.

3. Samsung controlling everything - Samsung literally owns Korea. Office buildings, cell phones, food, appliances, underwear, you name it and Samsung owns it.

4. Living in a high tech world - everyone is connected, finger print scanners are in and everywhere, small portable dvd players that fit in your hand, crazy mp3 players with antennae coming out of them, and the slide phones

5. The world's largest indoor amusement park - and it is called Lotte World. This park is not only indoor, it extends outside. Disney on steroids could be a good description of this place.

6. Everyone loves baseball - Koreans do not discriminate on which teams they support or unknowingly support by wearing a certain team's hat. I have seen every MLB team on either a shirt or hat here. People just love baseball which is a rare sight outside of the US.

7. Seoul has every American chain store - I mean every US chain restaurant/store, here's a rundown of what I've spotted so far: 7 Eleven, Dunkin' Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Outback Steakhouse, Tony Roma's, Domino's, Pizza Hut, Baskin Robbins, Starbucks, Au Bon Pain, and more.

8. Converse is hip - all of the college kids on down wear Converse, in the US Converse isn't as popular as it is here.

9. No Stares - No one stares at us in Korea. I'm not sure why, but people do not stop what they are doing and look us over for a long time. Korean culture value of respect and kindness is definitely involved here.

10. Bibimbap and Green Tea ice cream - Korean food is great. Bibimbap is a traditional Korean dish with rice and about 6 different vegetables. Green tea ice cream is green tea flavored ice cream. Both taste great.

11. Genuine courtesy and culture - People are polite and treat their elders with respect.

12. Beautiful people - A lot of Koreans wear designer clothing and sport the pop star look.

13. Cars that don't run you over - Cars yield for pedestrians most of the time.

14. Kong Tiao (AC) - Any place indoors in Seoul has air conditioning. This is a good thing since we are in Korea during the hottest time of the year.

15. Largest Museum in all of Asia - The National Museum of Korea in Seoul. It is massive, larger than any of the Smithsonians in DC. I can't describe the scale of this museum. It has everything you could imagine.

16. Orderly lines guiding all pedestrian traffic - Crosswalks have white painted arrows directing people to orderly cross the street. The metro directs people to walk to the left side of the stairs and escalators have a painted yellow line reminding people to stay to the right if people want to pass on the left. Most busy streets in Seoul don't have crosswalks but rather underground crosswalks.

17. 2-handed waves - For some reason a select group of people like to wave using 2 hands, shaking them from side to side in a rapid motion. I don't know what to make of this. It is a bit scary.

18. No censoring of any kind - No sites are banned so I can read my blog temporarily. Also newspapers are not controlled by the government which is nice for a little while.

19. Underground Stores/Restaurants - This is something that every country should have. Not only does it cut down on traffic above ground but its nice to be able to get out of the heat for a little while.

Well here's a quick rundown of what I've been doing in Seoul on my time off from classes: going to the Korean War Museum, riding the tram to the top of the Seoul Tower, stopping by the China Cultural Center and meeting some Chinese students, going to a Korean musical based on a popular drama, getting lost on the Seoul metro, trying to find banks that will actually accept my bank card, randomly finding a huge indoor mall with movie theaters and 9 other floors, playing mini-golf, touring the Seoul Museum of History for free, going on a tour of the Korean Parliament building, eating Green Tea Ice Cream, going to a giant indoor amusement park called Lotte World, walking along the new man-made river through downtown Seoul at night, exploring the largest museum in Asia, and seeing the only Chinese town in Korea.

Check out the new Korea/Seoul photo album that I uploaded a few days ago. I also put up some new links. Tomorrow (Thursday, August 30th) we're touring the DMZ. More posts on the way...

Although the summer weather is hot, Beijing people love to eat hotpot

The summer program is officially over now. Well it's been a few days now but it doesn't seem that way. It still hasn't hit me yet. The title of this post was a sentence we had to memorize at the beginning of the program. For some reason it seemed appropriate to call this post that but I don't really know why. Oh, the picture at the start of this post is of our class and our 1对1 teacher who is a student at Yantai U. He gave us all handmade traditional Chinese good luck pieces. I hope to keep in touch with Zhong laoshi. The next 10 days are going to a much needed break for me. This past week was relatively uneventful. We did go to the Korean bakery a few more times which was great. This bakery is really out of a different world. They have real bagels, cinnamon rolls, French bread, smoothies, it feels like paradise on Earth considering you can't find any of this in China. Today we took our 1-on-1 professor out to the bakery before he went back to his hometown. After the bakery, I walked around campus to take some last minute pictures. Later on in the day it was time to go back to the child labor Korean restaurant and visit the 3 cone in one ice cream stand. A bunch of us went to the lake and sat around enjoying the cool night. It was a nice, relaxing night before heading off to Korea. Tomorrow myself and Charlie have to hit the chuzuche (taxi) at 8:30. We have a plan to meet our friend at the Chinese embassy which is about 15 minutes away. It should be quite the adventure even though we have all of her information. So its a week and a half before we head back to Beijing to start the fall semester. Ha, it is crazy to think about how quickly the summer program passed. 2 months are down, 4 to go.

Monsoon Season Has Arrived

The last week and a half since the Qingdao trip has flown by. Some cool/interesting things that have transpired recently: a few bball games against Yantai U. students, the discovery of "Child Labor" (a Korean restaurant that only employs kids under 12), the discovery of a great jiaozi guan (dumpling restaurant), exploring the night market more, a new Chinese culture class that we have everyday taught in Chinese by a professor at Yantai U., discovering a Korean bakery that has real bagels and bread, and the coming of monsoon season. By monsoon, I seriously mean monsoon. It has been pouring for a week straight with practically no periods of sun. This past Friday we literally couldn't make it to class because there were 2 feet of water on the ground. You practically have to swim to get around. I've never seen anything like it. Tonight on our cab ride home we drive through a few feet of water on the road. Haha, luckily we didn't stall out and made it back to the dorm alright. The forecast says we're due for some better weather next week so hopefully we'll get some. On Friday we took our last test of the program (not counting the placement test that we took at the beginning of the program and the final exam). Another thing that transpired over the last week or so is the plan to go to Korea in between the Summer and Fall programs. Charlie and I are flying out from Yantai to Seoul and then back to Beijing for the fall program. We found out that we have to leave the country and reapply for a visa since the Chinese government changed their rules. I'm excited to explore Korea and see my friend there. It will be a nice break from the summer program which will definitely be needed. In the coming week I will talk more about what has been going on recently and change the blog around a bit with more links/pictures/different YouTube clips.

Chuar Never Tasted So Good

On Monday and Tuesday after the 7 day work week we were in Qingdao, a coastal town that is heavily influenced by the Germans. In the early 20th century German claimed the town so today there is a distinct German quarter and the Qingdao Beer Factory. Qingdao beer is the best in all of China because it was developed by Germans, who picked Qingdao to start a beer factory because of the great mineral water in the area. We all hopped on a bus to Qingdao early Monday morning. After checking into the 30+ story hotel I walked around the city with some friends before finding a place to eat for lunch. I was happy to find that Germans did indeed live in Qingdao when I spotted a few chowing down on some squid chuar (squid on a stick). We walked by the Catholic Church built during the German occupation that somehow saved from destruction during the Cultural Revolution. I learned that the staples were hidden in the hills so that the authorities couldn't take them. The architecture in Qingdao looked as if it was taken right from München. When we all met back at the hotel after lunch it was time to take a tour of the Qingdao Pijiu Chang (Qingdao Beer Factory). Driving up to the factory, we were greeted with 30 foot bottles of Qingdao covering the roof of the building. Outside the factory was a giant fountain with a bottle of Qingdao and mugs placed around it. A little later we went into the museum detailing the history of the company and showing how the beer was made and the current processes. I was surprised that they decided to use switch from German to Chinese hops about 20 years ago because it tastes just like German beer. After the tour, which included an exhibition featuring Qingdao commercials from all over the world which were pretty hilarious, we went to the tasting room. Along with a fresh bei of pijiu, the tour guide gave us Qingdao branded "Beer Peanuts." They were pretty darn tasty. Next we entered a room that simulated what it feels like to be in a drunken state. The ceiling was actually tilted along with the floor so that your body couldn't stabilize. It was a wild room. Next we were off to the free bar which was all you can drink Qingdao Pijiu. After the factory tour, a few of us headed off to the Qingdao beach to swim and see the actual temple the Qingdao logo is based on. I brought my frisbee along and it was a big hit. We attracted a lot of attention and a lot of the kids wanted to try their shot at throwing.

At night, we went to a real, authentic Italian fanguan. When they brought out bruschetta and fresh bread everyone at the table was salivating. One bad aspect of Chinese cuisine is that you can't find real bread! You can't even find it at a grocery store here. Me and my friends came to the consensus that Chinese bread is made out of cardboard. It has to be. How else does the bread last for days without refrigeration? Anyway, I ended up ordering pasta with bolognese sauce and devoured it. It was the best and most expensive meal I've had in China. Let's just say that we were all "dropping the kuai" (this means a lot of bills we're used at the meal). At the end of the meal we asked the waiter where she would recommend to go out to. We ended up going to the the "New York Bar" which had a Phillipino band covering popular western songs. They did a killer version of Bohemian Rhapsody in all its 6 minute glory. We actually randomly met up with a lot of kids on the program so it was a really fun night.

The next morning we all woke up early for breakfast and took the bus to Laoshan Mountain. On the way, the kong tiao (AC) broke and we had to pull into a really sketchy repair shop in the middle of nowhere. While we were waiting around, I found some human hair and kuaizi (chopsticks) on the ground along with lots of other junk. We threw around the frisbee for a while and someone ended up throwing it into a pond. The retrieval of the frisbee consisted of some kids on the program riding a borrowed dingy out to the middle of the pond. It was a funny scene. The hike was a nice and relaxing but we didn't have enough time to make it to the top. We did have time to be carried up the mountain for a little while by two "people-carriers", and see a Taoist temple a little over the halfway point up the mountain. After the hike it was back to Yantai. Everyone was drained after the Qingdao trip but it was a nice break from Yantai.

Yantai at the Halfway Point

So we're at the halfway point of the program now and finally settled in to the new routine in Yantai. The first weekend we were here a bunch of us went straight to the much-hyped beach "only 5 minutes away from campus". Dan brought a football and I carried along a Frisbee to throw around at the beach. It was a totally different beach experience than I've ever had. On the beach there were a bunch of boats "docked" in the sand. It added a nice touch to the beauty of the beach. Fisherman launched their boats about 20 feet away from where people were swimming. Mini-tractors drove right along the edge of the sea narrowly missing people sitting in the sand, spitting out thick clouds of black smoke across the beach. Diapers and a nice diverse assortment of waste littered the water close to shore, of course where everyone was swimming and enjoying the cool Yantai weather. Haha. It was quite the scene. At the beach we were stared at more than anywhere else. People were awestruck to see a "large olive" flying through the air (the Chinese translation of football means flying olive). We even spotted a couple videotaping us throwing the football and Frisbee. Soon a big crowd gathered on the stones at the top of the beach just to watch us. All while this was going on, Alison was getting a lot of attention because of her bikini. They just don't exist in China since everyone dresses very modestly. It was interesting to see that most of the women didn't go into the water. Some that went in wore full swim-dresses that were pretty unusual.

Yantai Da Xue's campus is really great. It's much more spread out than Beida so it isn't always packed with people all the time like it is in Beijing. Right outside our dorm is a basketball court that is always packed with kids in the afternoons. One day I went down to the courts to shoot around and soon I was involved in full court games. It amazed me that the kids played basketball in their sandals or bare feet. You have to have really tough feet to play basketball without shoes. After a few days of playing with the kids I picked up some basketball terminology. Here are a few useful phrases in case you get into a pickup game with the Chinese: "Hao Qiu" = good shot, "Lan Qiu" = to shoot, "Chuan Qiu" = to pass, "San Fen" = 3 point line. That's about all of the new vocab I've learned so far. Most of the time I just talk a lot of trash in Chinese. One day I taught the kids how to play "knockout," which was cool. It took a while to explain it in Chinese but they finally got it I think. Every time I go out to the courts they always ask me questions about the US. They are all really interested in where I came from and what I'm doing in China. Playing basketball here is a great time and I get a lot of practice with my Chinese. A few days ago I found out that most of the kids practice Judo all day and then come to the basketball courts everyday after their sessions.

At night in Yantai near the beach there are street vendors everywhere. You can find everything from fried squid on a stick to beef to every other type of meat imaginable. We discovered a great place that makes amazing fresh burritos made right in front of your eyes. There are also a lot of great, cheap Korean restaurants in the area. Today we stumbled upon a jiaozi (dumpling) place that tasted great. One night after grabbing dinner me and a few kids from AU saw to the side of the road older women dancing in a square with music blaring from speakers, so we checked it out. While talking with an older lady watching from the stage, we found out that they were doing it for exercise. We had a hard time understanding her because of her Shandonghua (Shandongese dialect), but we could make out her saying that we looked like foreigners because of our big noses. She said that Alison looked like a native Chinese because of her flat nose. The women also pointed out our hair and thought that Alison was Chinese since she had black hair. It was a really funny experience and we were all cracking up, including the old Chinese woman. We all came to the conclusion after this encounter that the people of Yantai are a lot more forthcoming than Beijingers.

So tomorrow we're heading off to Qingdao for a few days. The past week we had class everyday, that's 7 days in a row. It was an intense week, but now we have some time to travel a bit. Our schedule is to see the famous German-made Qingdao beer factory and hike Laoshan mountain.

On the Train to Yantai

Wow, it’s been a while since the last blog post. Part of it has to do with not having the Internet for a few days. But lots of updates are coming soon because a lot has happened since we made it to Yantai. On Sunday night we got an email from the wise Sun zhaoshou (Professor Sun). The context of the message was to uphold the language pledge and that major class changes were taking place. Our class was cut to 5 kids, which turned out to be great because we got a lot more practice and individual attention this week. Other than class, one night I went with a few friends from AU to meet our friend from AU’s boyfriend who goes to Beida. He was a really nice guy and will be a good person to know come fall semester. Later in the week we tried to meet up for some basketball, but it didn’t work out. Other than zai lianxi he fuxi Hanyu ne (practicing and reviewing Chinese), we didn’t have much time outside of class. So our last day in Beijing we had another kaoshi (test), packed a little bit, and made our way over to Yao Fangzi (Medicine House) for the last time (for most of the kids on the program). So after the test, we all took a bus to the train station. It was a wild scene. People seemed to be growing out of the ground. The only way I can describe it is how my Chinese professor at AU described China, ren shan ren hai (people mountain people ocean). Now we’re on the train to Yantai. It’s a 14-hour ride with about 25 stops along the way…we should be in Yantai at 6:30 am tomorrow. It is really crowded and cramped but we’re making the best of it. I’m thinking I won’t be able to sleep too much tonight.

Alright we finally made it to Yantai after a long sleepless night and we are now in the Yantai University dorms. It already feels a lot different than Beijing. On the drive from the train station we saw lots of beach areas and huge freighters off in the distance. The temperature here is a lot more comfortable than Beijing. From what I’ve seen of the campus it looks really nice. I’d say it’s about 15 times larger in size than my school. The living situation will be a lot different here. We’re only allotted a certain amount of electricity and Internet use per month before we have to pay for it. I do like that we have a washer in the dorm so we don’t have to wait 2 days before our laundry is done. Now I have to get re-acclimated to a completely new place. The program will be a lot closer here than it was in Beijing since all of our professors are living with us. It will be a whole new adventure.

Beijing十一天 (Day 12)

So the first week of real classes and tests are over and the weekend is finally here. I think this week was more intense than the first week since we were doing new material for the first time. We all agree that it can't get more intense at this point. It has reached a point of intensity that I've never felt before. Well, today we hiked Changcheng (The Great Wall) on a nice overcast misty day. Haha, actually it wasn't the best day to climb up Changcheng because viability was about 1/4 mile tops. But none of that mattered since it was the Great Wall. On our way up the steep not-as-touristy part of the wall we met a bunch of people from all over the world. I spotted French tourists, a choral group mainly from Florida, a bunch of Russians, and my friend saw an Iranian. On the top we met some crazy Russians that were jumping around from wall to wall thousands of feet up the Great Wall. We were all tired by the end of the climb but it was well worth it. The views were picturesque even though visibility was so low. After coming back, I went out with some friends to The Banana Leaf, supposedly one of the best Thai places in Beijing. Our That's BJ magazine described it as "Disney on speed." It couldn't have been a better description of the place. Fake trees, alligators, and a troupe of Filipino musicians/wannabe pop stars really made it live up to the hype. Alright, so finally I sat down with my buddies Alison, Charlie, and Dan, and created a list of all of the moments so far that make China so great.

Things That Make China "China" Moments:

1. Funk Pockets - These are randomly placed along the street with no sign of origin, fecal matter, or any other possible funk. Some of them are regulars, for example the bridge right across from "Kro's" that we call "Funk River".

2. Ba Shirts (Pig Shirts) - Men who roll their shirts up to their armpits. Usually this is accompanied by a large potbelly. If its especially hot out and the humidity's up, the shirts are rolled up higher and you'll be spotting these guys with more frequency.

3. Umbrellas - It doesn't matter if the sun's out, you'll see every girl/woman sheltered by her umbrella/parasol. Sometimes the piaoliang de guniang (pretty girls) hold their umbrellas for their nan pengyous (boyfriends). I hear fair skin is important for Chinese people so no one wants a tan.

4. a. The Girlfriend Seat - The girlfriend sits sideways on the bike holding on to their nan pengyou (boyfriend). Usually the girl hold our her parasol over her boyfriend for sun protection.

4. b. The Boyfriend Seat - The opposite of "The Girlfriend Seat." A rare happening that usually results in the girlfriend struggling to pull the weight of her boyfriend.

4. c. Old Men Carrying Lots of Stuff on Their Bike - Piles of wood and scrap metal stacked eight feet high on the back of the bike while the man smokes a cigarette and moves at about 2 miles/hour.

5. The Sun - Being confused if it's the Sun or the Moon, grey sky = blazing hot weather and lots of pollution, blue sky is extremely rare.

6. Not Willing to Pay 2 Kuai for Water, but Dropping 12 Kuai for a DQ Blizzard

7. 80s Fashion - Perms, silver pants and track suits, gold shoes, Michael Jackson

8. MJ and Houston Rockets - Everyone loves Michael Jordan even though he retired years ago (he still makes an appearance on a lot of the Gatorade bottles here) and the Rockets (Yao Ming's team even though T-Mac is more popular here).

9. Being Able to Talk About People Without Them Knowing - You can talk about literally everything and no one will know. This includes: making fun of people in front of their face, talking about otherwise taboo subjects, complaining about squatters (see #11).

10. Traffic Regulations - Any sort of signage on the road is pretty much useless in China. Red means stop in the middle of the road when a car or bike is about to hit you or speed up and get to the other side of the street. Lanes are nonexistant. Honking is encouraged and used even when it isn't necessary, especially at pedestrians.

11. Toilets - The Squatter...toilets are rare and you must learn to squat and use your own toilet paper. Most of the toilets consist of holes in the ground and nothing else. This is a challenge everyday. I fear for my life at each passing moment and try to avoid the #2.

12. Getting Stared At - You know they just want to be our Gemenrs (Homeboys). Everyone seems to think we're from another planet. Alison looks a southern islander. Charlie looks like a giant and regularly gets in photo-ops with strangers. I look like an American and people like to stare at me too.

13. Olympics - Everywhere you look. Gift Stores, T-Shirts, Countdowns, Signs, Ads.

14. Being Laughed At For Attempting to Speak Chinese.

15. Pollution - Black snot and grey phlegm, inhaling about 10 packs of cigarettes/day, coming back from campus panting because you can't get enough oxygen, going for a run for 20 minutes and recovering for the next hour.

16. Public Excretion - Lots of people don't seem to be afraid to drop their pants in public and do their business without any second thoughts.

17. a. Lack of Proper Doors - Instead the Chinese love to use plastic, slime/grease/fecal matter/sweat covered door entrances.

17.b. Mega-Cantings (Cafeterias) - With the massive amount of students on campus they need cafeterias that can fill thousands of students. At lunch time, everything shuts down and everyone grabs food. These huge cafeterias are filled with students and you need eagle vision to find seats, let alone figure out how to order your food.

18. Sweat.

19. Children yelling and running wild outside at midnight. Crowds of people everywhere no matter what time or where you are.

20. Flag Raising Ceremony Every Morning at 7:50am sharp outside Haidian Gym involving morning calisthenics and saluting the flag.

21. KTV/Karaoke Everywhere - It's what people do for fun here.

22. "Wo men qu AAzhi" - "Going Dutch", Every English-speaking Chinese person seems to know this saying.

23. Bargaining - Every last kuai matters. It doesn't make a difference that 1 kuai is about 15 cents.

24. The Foreigner Stare - Westerners look at you like you're from a different planet when you say "Hello" to them. The consequence of this makes everyone turn into a disgruntled foreigner with a case of the Marco Polo Syndrome (thinking they discovered this country and no one else matters).

25. Kenny G and Titanic Everywhere - Today at the Carrefor we listened to Kenny G on repeat for the third time this week. When you don't hear Kenny G you hear the Titanic theme song blasting from the nearest speakers of the shop/restaurant.

26. Censorship - When you're in China you are being watched all the time. I can't visit anything that is .blogspot.com which this site is, so hypothetically I can't see anything I'm writing. Alison was watching CNN one time and it blacked out for about 30 seconds as they were talking about democracy. Dan was talking with a friend on Skype and mentioned something about recording equipment possibly being in the room and his computer just turned off.

We'll be adding more to this list as we think of them.

Beijing七天 (Day 7)

Today we all went back to class after a busy weekend. Saturday was the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, and Tiananmen Square trip all packed into one epic day. First we went to the Summer Palace where we rented paddle boats and explored the seas for an hour or so. The views were spectacular as they were all day. We made quite the scene when our boat drifted into another boat manned by American students, while Charlie tried to change boats. All of the Chinese tourists passing by us in their Dragon Boat were loving every minute of it. Other than that incident, all of the non-Western tourists were all over us and wanted us to be in their pictures. I have to say I felt like a celebrity. Throughout the day all of the street sellers were all up in our face trying to sell their bootleg merchandise. My first bargaining experience was a success. I walked away two times and finally knocked the price of the shirt down from 80 kuai to 20 kuai (about $3). Later I found out that a bunch of people were scammed and lost a few hundred kuai. The fake kuai was really hard to distinguish from real kuai...I couldn't even tell the difference. Today one of the kids that got scammed told me he used it on a cab fare and the driver didn't even notice. I guess fake kuai isn't really fake if people take it.

After a great lunch at an ethnic minority restaurant in a massive mall which included a special dance/music interlude involving the ritual of being forced to eat certain foods and drinking whatever was on the table and getting your ear pinched. The comedy of it all came when some vegetarians were forced to eat meat. It was a really good time. Then we were off to the Forbidden City (故宫). As expected, I was blown away by the sheer size of it all. We only were able to see a mere fraction of it and didn't have a chance to see all of the special collections there. Xiao Laoshi was our guide and told us an incredible amount of history. He said that for about 800 years only the Emperor, his workers, and special advisers were allowed in and when they came in they could never leave. A while after we stopped at the Starbucks to check out how ridiculous it was (I was actually surprised that there was no sign and it was a hole in the wall), we made our way to Tiananmen Square. I was pretty scared of saying anything when I saw all of the megaphones, cameras, and listening devices inside every lamppost. Plus the military presence was enormous for a public place. Well, when we finally got back home to Haidian Gym at around 6pm, the sky turned orange and we were caught in a sandstorm! I've never seen anything quite like it. For about 15 minutes I was blinded by sand but somehow made it back.

One story I forgot to talk about earlier...My roommate and I were walking back at night to our room. Getting to the place we live, you walk through an alleyway surrounded by ramshackle shacks. At the hut surrounded by a torn sheet we spotted about 10 people crowded around a TV. It was a scene you could have pulled out of China circa the 1970s. It was pretty incredible to see this in Beijing in the 20th century after all of the economic gains over the last few decades. It's just a reminder that a lot of Chinese people are in poverty and the economic growth over the years hasn't been realized by most.

Well, now all of my pictures so far are up on the link. On the next post, I'll be creating a list of all of the interesting things about China (actually it's going to be a join effort with Alison). One last thing before I dive into my Hanyu homework...Never try to make small talk with waiters in China. Someone who I won't name made the mistake of asking the waiter if her English name really was "Baby." The waiter gave him the dirtiest look I've ever seen in my life.

Beijing四天 (Day 4)

大家好 (Hey everyone),

Well a lot has happened these last few days and I haven't had much time to write on here. I'm thinking I'll update the blog 2 times per week. Classes started a few days ago and they are intense, as expected. We have class from 8am to 11:30am and then an afternoon class and 1 on 1 time. The language pledge started a few days ago and we quickly found out how difficult it was to follow. But it definitely helps in learning Chinese so I think it's a nice goal to aim for. All the kids on the program are great and they are all committed to learning Chinese which helps me improve. I ended up being placed (hopefully, since today we had a re-placement test) in Wang Laoshi's and Xiao Laoshi's class who were the two teachers that taught at AU last year. It's great to have them and class is so much better here than it was in the US since it's all taught in Chinese and we get much more individual attention. I have 7 other kids in my class which is a nice size if you ask me.

China is a pretty amazing place. Every morning we wake up to "Old Suzanne" (the American children's song) played over a loudspeaker followed by hundreds of kids running outside to do their daily exercises. Going to class in the morning and seeing the crowds of people riding their bike to work and the crazy Beijing rush hour traffic is really out of a different world. Every day is an adventure trying to order at mega cafeterias that seat 1,000 people and are always almost completely full. You really just have to have a sense of humor when you're trying to get across what you want. Today I tried to order chicken and ended up with fish but it was only 5 kuai which is roughly 75 cents. It is pretty amazing to think about how much food costs here. Today I bought a banana from a street vendor for "ba mao", about 10 cents. Water is about the same price if you buy it at a store.

Yesterday I had another unexpected event that made me greater appreciate where I am. I was walking to We Mei to get some water with Charlie and Alison when we came upon a throng of children who seemed to be on a field trip. As they approached us they pointed in our direction and started to wave. Some of the kids would say "Hello, how are you?" We would say "Ni hao" back to them. It was a surreal experience and one that I probably won't forget after my time in Beijing. Tomorrow we are going to the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, and Tiananmen Square. I think I'll pull my shirt up into my collar as I've seen a bunch of Beijing people do these last couple days. In the next decade or so you'll see everyone doing it. Watch out.

Beijing 一天 （Day 1)

Our first full day in Beijing was full of surprises. After being awakened by the pounding jackhammers working on some sort of Olympic facility nearby, I witnessed what was possibly the coolest event that I have seen thus far. All of a sudden music blasted from a loudspeaker directly outside our windows and hundreds of kids come pouring out of a school. They all lined up in formation and saluted and clapped upon their teacher's instruction. Eventually four kids came out holding a Chinese flag while the Chinese National Anthem began to play. By the end, everyone was in perfect formation saluting the flag. They then slowly filed out back into the school. It was a totally unexpected event that began my first real day in China. A few of us then embarked on our mission to find some food before the language placement exam. Eventually we went into We Mei (the Chinese equivalent of Wal-Mart) since everything seemed to be closed. We even tried to get into a 24 hour restaurant but it seemed to be closed. I ended up finding some tasty sesame rolls.

After the impossible language exam and finally seeing everyone on the program, I got to sit down with 王老师 (Wang Laoshi) who taught at AU last year. Then we went to lunch and talked with Beida students for a while. I discovered that the event that I witnessed at the school is commonplace throughout Beijing and thought of as showing honor to China. Later in the day I witnessed my first bike crash when two bikes collided head on. Good thing they weren't going fast and no one got hurt. We also saw 西门 (West Gate), on which Mao Zedong drew by hand the characters above the gate, one of the most famous symbols of Beida. Later on we met some Beida students just to make some contacts and build more guanxi (relationships that will someday benefit me). Tomorrow is the beginning of the language pledge in which I signed away my right to speak English for the next 8 weeks. In the words of Dr. Sun, the program director, "We saw, we studied, we conquered." This is what we should all think of at the end of the program. I guess we'll wait and see what happens. **SOME PICTURES ARE UP SO CHECK OUT THE LINK SECTION.

Beijing!

Walking in from customs was an experience in itself. I really felt as though I was stepping foot in a completely different world. Hundreds of people were crowded up against the rail holding signs and hollering out people's names in Chinese. It was a wild scene. Finally I found the sign for my program and went off in a taxi bus with the other kids in the program. I was a little bit shocked when I found that there were no seatbelts, especially because of all of the stories I heard about people's driving skills in China. Let me tell you, it was an adventure weaving between lanes and squeezing into spaces that looked to be closed off by the giant wave of cars converging from all directions. On the way to Beida we saw the National Stadium, which will be used for the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics. It was incredible seeing the "Bird's Nest" up close with all of its twisting steel structures. Everyone (of the kids who arrived that afternoon) went to the Canting (cafeteria) for dinner. The food was great and it was nice to get to know some people on the program.

So later the real adventure started. After everyone went to bed, my roommate arrived after his 5 hour delayed flight and we decided to get internet access. The problem was we did not know the word for internet and how to explain very well what we wanted. The women at the front desk knew absolutely no English! Both of us were dead, but we we finally got her to understand (through lots of hand motions and other means). When we got back to the room we just laughed it off. It was an interesting experience and we both realized how little we actually know. Tomorrow will be our first full day and we will be able to see all of the campus. Wanan! (Good Night!)

***I will put up pictures soon when I have the chance...I am having trouble viewing the blog because it is being blocked by the firewall here. Hopefully you will be able to read my posts.

Somewhere in Canadian Air-Space: In Seat 33J

After arriving at the airport, I sat down and read my book, a first-hand account of life during the Cultural Revolution. Soon a massive tour group from Montreal sat next to me. I overheard some conversations and butchered Chinese so I decided to step in and help them out a bit. Surprisingly they were really grateful for my help. They told me a bit about their month-long trip across China and it seemed to be the same one my grandparents are going on in a month. Cool stuff. On the flight I ended up sitting next to a Beijing businessman and his daughter. We didn’t speak much but whenever I took out my Chinese book he would say to his daughter, “You should be studying so that you’ll be able to understand stuff.” I guess I’m a positive influence on people. The choice for lunch (or should I say a tasty midnight snack) was Salmon or Fillet Minion. Needless to say I chose the Fillet Minion. The ban of all fish imports from China, breaking news on CNN while I was waiting in the airport, didn’t help my choice. So guess what came with the Fillet Minion? A fortune cookie! Why would Continental put a fortune cookie in the meal? I’ll be pondering that question for the next month. I couldn’t stop myself from cracking up because Fortune Cookies don’t exist in China. Then the moment of truth came. I opened the cookie and these ominous words of wisdom appeared on a strip of paper: “The best are not only the happiest, but the happiest are usually the best.” [turn over fortune] “Learn Chinese” “Xiang-nian ni” [English translation] “Miss you.” And this is how my journey to China begins.

1 Day and Change Before Beijing

Last night my home team, the Boston Celtics, had a chance to pick the best Chinese player since Yao Ming. Yi Jianlian was heralded as the next great hope for Chinese basketball, but the C's passed. Instead we traded a few players for all-star Ray Allen and my boy from LSU, "Big Baby" Glen Davis! I believe the sun will rise again for the Celtics franchise...someday (as Communism did for China under Mao). Hopefully we're moving in the right direction.

Well, the bags are packed and its go time. It took most of the day today to fit everything in my luggage. Today marked the first time I've had to weigh my bags for a flight. Pretty strange if you ask me. Speaking of strange, one strange sighting was seeing a super-size package of 24 rolls of toilette paper in my luggage. Another first for trip packing. I guess you never know when a roll of toilette paper will come in handy (ie. when you're out in the countryside and there's a big hole in the ground). Sometimes you've just got to do your business when the conditions aren't so favorable.

So this is my last blog post before Bejing. I'll be in the air for about 25 hours (if you're counting the 12 hour time change, the flight is only 13 hours long...only 13 hours long). I see it as 25 hours. So the language pledge begins...NO ENGLISH or you go home. It's as simple as that. 5 hours of Chinese/day, 3 hours of Chinese/week of chatter with the locals, >50 new Chinese characters/day. All that spells I-N-T-E-N-S-E. BUT I'M PSYCHED! It's going to be great. China for 6 months. Let's Go. 走把！

3 Days Before Beijing

Saturday is edging closer and I'm still not packed yet. It is a slow process, trying to think of what to pack for six months. Well, most of my clothes are laid out on the floor next to my luggage so hopefully I will have everything ready to go tonight.

Anyway, this morning started out with about six simultaneous Skype calls and Windows Messenger messages from people in China. iTalki is great and all for practicing Chinese with native speakers, but this event was probably the craziest experience of my life thus far. It is incredible how many people want to practice their English with me. After talking with Chinese college students for a few days, it seems to me they only studying in their free time. One important thing I have learned from iTalki is that the Chinese wake up earlier and go to bed earlier than most Americans. At around 10:30am (10:30pm Chinese time) almost everyone said they had to go to sleep. The other day I was online at 7:00pm (7am their time) and I already had a message on Skype waiting for me. Most of the kids I was talking with were in college, so they were around my age.

One last thing to mention. Everyone seems to be talking about the great underground rock scene in China, especially in Beijing. The more that I've heard, the more psyched I'm getting. Yesterday my friend Charlie told me about the most famous Chinese rock musician, Cui Jian, who happens to have grown up in Beijing. He is the legendary Chinese artist that broke away from traditional styles and incorporated a Western influences into his music. Old Cui is known as "The Father of Chinese Rock." I can tell you now that I'm already a big fan. In my view he is a cross between Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen. What do you think he sounds like? Decide for yourself:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l8UPST1ZKSw&mode=related&search=

Countdown Clock

4 Days Before Beijing

Wow. Time sure does fly. The months of anticipation are finally coming to a head and I can almost picture a hazy outline of the Beijing airport. Last week my friend Charlie showed me a website called italki.com, which allows you to connect with people around the world and create language partners. Since then I have already made connections with students and teachers around the Beijing. It not only has helped me practice for the Intensive Chinese Immersion Program this summer, but has raised my anticipation level even higher. Just the other day I was talking with a Chinese teacher in Beijing and she was telling me about all of the things I should do there. She even gave me her contact information in case I need help with something while I am in Beijing!

Alright, so I am going to try to update this blog every day if I am near a computer. In the links section, I'll be adding sites that I find interesting. For now, I put up a link to my pictures in China that will hopefully be up-to-date. Make sure you check out the bar of YouTube videos above this post. Occasionally I will change it up when I feel the time is right. At the moment you're getting a little segment I am calling "I'm Livin' On Chinese Rock." Enjoy and leave me some comments! If there's anything you want to know about or have any other questions for me, let me know.