After 10 days of a mad sunburn, bus rides of people “prancing” and “frolicking” and beautiful mountains I’m back! Since these past 2 weeks have been Chinese New Year all of our teachers went home so that clearly means we don’t have class, woohoo, instead we went on a trip to one of the southern provinces of China. Yunnan 云南 is where the majority of the minorities in China live. It’s close to Vietnam and Thailand, which reflects in some of the food and also the way people dress. We visited 4 cities on our trip, Kunming 昆明 which is the capital of Yunnan, Dali 大理, Lijiang 丽江 and Xixhuang Banna 西双 版纳 (this is the most fun to say!). It was so interesting between each city the difference in the peoples look. When we were in Lijiang we saw a show that was directed by Zhang Yimou, the director of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies, and the actors in it were such a range, some defiantly looked Chinese but others looked more Native American. Now I know what your thinking, don’t all Asian people look the same, false, my friend explained to me that the reason us Caucasians think this is because we focus on different features than Asians do to distinguish people so that’s why we don’t necessarily see the differences (Thanks Coach Haley for this fun fact).
We started our adventure in Kunming. Now brace yourself for this, they are a rarity to come by even in the United States but Kunming has its very own TCBY! In Kunming we took a boat ride on Erhai 洱海 Lake and got to participate in the Bai minority tea ceremony 白族三道茶. They gave us 3 types of tea which represented the 3 stages of life, the first one was bitter, which represents the hard work you put in studying and becoming successful in the beginning of your life, the next is a sweet which represents the next part of your life that you get to enjoy family and enjoy the fruits of your success and finally the last tea translates into “return to the taste” which is the final part that you have memories can reflect back on your life. How people tend to use relationship statuses on facebook to proclaim to the world that they in fact are “in love”, the Bai minority group had different head dressed to show if they are marries or not. That night after the tea tasting we walked around Dali 大理and had the best candy it was basically peanuts/peanut butter wrapped in sugar, two of my favorite things! We found a really nice western restaurant to eat at, the street that it was on reminded me of Mexico, there were all sorts of outdoor restaurants and loud music. At this restaurant there were also some ballin drinkers who were taking back straight shots of Bacardi Breezers, wow now boys don’t get too crazy.
The next day we took a 5-hour bus ride to Lijiang 丽江, the scenery outside was beautiful but inside the bus was a different story; “the sickness” was starting to take its victims. Through out the whole trip about half of our group feel to “the sicknesses” evil doings. We still don’t exactly know what it was I think it was some kind of flu but luckily my friends and I were able to avoid it (I would like to thank my mom for instilling her great hygiene practices for this!). For those of you that have seen a Warren Miller movie, you know when they are in the remote villages and as they walk through the streets with their equipment the local people follow them in awe? Well we were no professional skiers with camera crews but that’s when it felt like when we got into Lijiang 丽江, our buses we’re allowed to drive in so there was a herd of 40 white kids 外国人with giant suitcases parading down the street to our hotel. After we got settled into our hotel we went to lunch where the owner offered to sell his daughter to one of our friends, ya I don’t even know. Something interesting about the different villages that we visited was the different word for boy and girl, in Lijiang they call them pàng jīn gē, pàng jīn mè that is basically saying that being fat is beautiful (I wonder if Peter Paul Rubens ever had his way to China). We got the privilege to be able to talk with a man name Xuan Ke, who is helping to preserve Naxi ancient music 纳溪古 in Jijiang. He studied this form of music when he was younger but when the Cultural Revolution started music was not allowed and he didn’t agree with this revolution so he spoke out against Mao and was jailed for 20 years. Still today, he is very critical of the government. He’s a wealthy man in the area so he donated a bunch of money to help with education and he also brought together a Naxi Ancient Music performing group that has traveled internationally. The men in this group are as old as 78, its very impressive to hear them play, granted many of them kept falling asleep during the performance that’s just a minor detail. Before I came to China I was warned that locals would want to take tons of pictures with me cause of how different I look and I hadn’t encountered that until Lijiang, we would have whole families come up to us to take pictures.
The next day we got to see the beautiful hour of 6:30am to make it to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain before the lines got long. Since none of us were prepared to play in the snow we rented parkas to keep us warm, best idea ever! This mountain was absolutely stunning, I can’t even being to describe, it reminded me a lot of Colorado. The day we went was clear with the sun out which was great for pictures but not great for my un-sun screened face, Mrs. Flannery would not have approved. After we played in the snow we got to see the impression show I was talking about earlier. They used the mountain as the backdrop of the show. Performances that I have seen in the past, the chorus actors have many roles, which is not how they do it here. This was a HUGE cast the people just kept coming; there was no double dipping on roles here.
The next day we caught a flight to Xishuang Banna 西双版纳, a drug and prostitute hot spot. We were not allowed to go to clubs or KTV or drink mixed drinks, apparently they lace the alcohol with formaldehyde. Also in the past one of the tour guides was in KTV with a group of students and a man approached him asking how much the girls cost, Mom, Dad, Pari aren’t you glad you didn’t know this beforehand! The weather was so warm here so we were able to take a boat ride down to a Buddhist village where we played them in basketball. Now you all know my basketball skills end after the first, or if I’m lucky the second, round of knock out so I was no help to the team but we ended up only loosing by 2. The local team we played though wasn’t wearing shoes either which was impressive! The next day we went hiking, it was like home. And then we took a bike ride from the hike back to our hotel, it was absolutely beautiful, everything was so green.
We’ll if you’re still reading I’m very impressed with you, you are my true friends, ill bring you back extra special presents ☺ . If any of you are planning on coming to China you have to visit Yunnan, I felt so much more at home there than I do in the city. Since I still don’t know how to put up pictures here I have them all on facebook.
Now I’m back so I better be hearing from you all!
Xoxo
Aryn
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Stay tuned...
Back to Shanghai! I promise ill be putting up my post soon from Yunnan but due to my lack of spelling and grammar skills (and rachel not being here to help me) it takes me slightly longer than the average person to make a comprehendable post. Its been great being back in Shanghai though, our area is no longer a ghost town. Since Fudan University and SUFE University, the two schools closest to us, have basically been on break since we got here in January, not many people have been around and especially closer to the new year most of the store were closed. Now the area is full of people and there are stores and restaurants i didn't even know existed. So now after 2 weeks of living the dream in warm weather without classes its back to the city.
I posted pictures on facebook of Yunnan if you want to check those out, yet the pictures book version and ill fill in the details. Over all though it was an amazing trip, it was so nice to get back to nature and see a part of China that i wouldn't have otherwise.
Well more details to come i promise! Sorry this post is less than interesting, ill make the next one double the pleasure and double to fun!
xoxo
Aryn
I posted pictures on facebook of Yunnan if you want to check those out, yet the pictures book version and ill fill in the details. Over all though it was an amazing trip, it was so nice to get back to nature and see a part of China that i wouldn't have otherwise.
Well more details to come i promise! Sorry this post is less than interesting, ill make the next one double the pleasure and double to fun!
xoxo
Aryn
Monday, February 15, 2010
If all the snow flakes were candy canes and milkshakes
A to do in life.... celebrate new years(新年） in Shanghai. number one reason: boom boom boom! we were surrounded by fireworks in the city. From our apartment we could look out and see at least 10 different shows going on and none of which were run by professional...it was like 4th of July on drugs! When we were in a taxi to go to dinner a family lit off a firework less than 10 feet from our cab, safety is overrated. number two: it snowed! ok so i know this isn't going to happen every year but having a snow ball fight on the balcony overlooking the city is a pretty epic way to start the year of the tiger, very fierce if you ask me!
The New Year is a huge holiday here so most of the shops have been closed since Saturday. Our street to so lonely, covers on all the shops and no one is around. Good thing our trip to Yunnan comes at the perfect time!
We're had school off this week since we leave on Wednesday (tomorrow) and all of our teachers went home so we've had the chance to explore the city a little more. While it has been freezing and rainy we have manned up and done it! (Don't worry im not just going to reiterate an itinerary for you all). So we went to an area called Xintiandi. This street could easily be a street in the states. Its very quant and an nice reminder of home. There are many international restaurants and coffee shops. I can't tell you how nice it was to get a cup of coffee and have spleda and milk waiting to spice up my drink! We also went into a really neat store called Shanghai Tang. They take traditional chinese styles and make them more modern, if you get a chance google it! After we went to Tianzifang, while we didn't get the full experience cause we went on new years eve and more stores were closed we saw the windows of the art galleries and it was much more Shanghai than Xintiandi.
Alright now for a un-bias, Aryn interpreted chinese enlightenment! I'm taking a politics class this semester and it has been a great opportunity to understand how the chinese government is set up. I had huge misunderstanding of the workings of the communist party. Now i am no expert right now but something that i did learn that was surprising is that there at 8 other parties other than the communist party here in China. The current Minister of Science and Technology is actually not from the communist party which is interesting because if China wants to keep developing the way they have science and technology are huge factors. In this same class we may get the opportunity to help out with the Expo. My professor is on a committee that is organizing a showcase of the different communities within Shanghai, this will include models of the neighborhoods and short skits. We come in to help them test their english to be able to answer potential questions people might have. Speaking of the Expo if you haven't gotten the chance to check out the website you have to! The pavilions all look so cool, while about 20% of them are not on target to be complete for the start of the Expo you know those are just minor details. The city is in a huge process of developing, everywhere we go there seems to be big fences up covering the construction... two thumbs up for covering things up!
Before I leave you all for 10 days i would like to encourage you to look up the song "Sorry, Sorry" by Super Junior, you lives wll be better because of it!
xoxo
Aryn
The New Year is a huge holiday here so most of the shops have been closed since Saturday. Our street to so lonely, covers on all the shops and no one is around. Good thing our trip to Yunnan comes at the perfect time!
We're had school off this week since we leave on Wednesday (tomorrow) and all of our teachers went home so we've had the chance to explore the city a little more. While it has been freezing and rainy we have manned up and done it! (Don't worry im not just going to reiterate an itinerary for you all). So we went to an area called Xintiandi. This street could easily be a street in the states. Its very quant and an nice reminder of home. There are many international restaurants and coffee shops. I can't tell you how nice it was to get a cup of coffee and have spleda and milk waiting to spice up my drink! We also went into a really neat store called Shanghai Tang. They take traditional chinese styles and make them more modern, if you get a chance google it! After we went to Tianzifang, while we didn't get the full experience cause we went on new years eve and more stores were closed we saw the windows of the art galleries and it was much more Shanghai than Xintiandi.
Alright now for a un-bias, Aryn interpreted chinese enlightenment! I'm taking a politics class this semester and it has been a great opportunity to understand how the chinese government is set up. I had huge misunderstanding of the workings of the communist party. Now i am no expert right now but something that i did learn that was surprising is that there at 8 other parties other than the communist party here in China. The current Minister of Science and Technology is actually not from the communist party which is interesting because if China wants to keep developing the way they have science and technology are huge factors. In this same class we may get the opportunity to help out with the Expo. My professor is on a committee that is organizing a showcase of the different communities within Shanghai, this will include models of the neighborhoods and short skits. We come in to help them test their english to be able to answer potential questions people might have. Speaking of the Expo if you haven't gotten the chance to check out the website you have to! The pavilions all look so cool, while about 20% of them are not on target to be complete for the start of the Expo you know those are just minor details. The city is in a huge process of developing, everywhere we go there seems to be big fences up covering the construction... two thumbs up for covering things up!
Before I leave you all for 10 days i would like to encourage you to look up the song "Sorry, Sorry" by Super Junior, you lives wll be better because of it!
xoxo
Aryn
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Spring Festival and beyond!
Don't worry im still alive! I'm been trying to think of a good theme for this next blog and well that failed so this is going to be a random jumble of everything!
So for those of you who a) can't think of the perfect place to take you significant other on Valentines day of b) planning on spending February 14th with Love Actually, a box of pizza, and Ben and Jerry (Sandbar you know this what we would be doing, boys or no boys!) worry no more, you can celebrate the Chinese New Year. be cultural (what up Global Fusion) and stop worrying about this hallmark holiday! This year is the year of the tiger so get fierce. Fun New Years facts: This holiday is a very family oriented holiday, people go back to their hometown, for many people this is their one trip back per year, my laoshi (professor) is going home to see her family for the first time in half a year! The area around our apartments is starting to clear out, shops are closing for the New Year 新年. Since a lot of people migrate to Shanghai for work, there are not as many people that are actually from the city (chengshi-城市). So this holiday is about good fortune and luck so people will put a post of 副 (fu) upside down on their doors to welcome in good fortune and good luck. Also, the adults will give 红包(hong bao) which are little red envelopes filled with money, hello good fortune! The Chinese love their fireworks so people have been setting them off leading up to the New Year. Now these shows aren't set to music and planned like we think of fireworks shows its more college students who have a few extra kuai who are bored in our courtyard.... how i love china!
Starting tomorrow after our chineses exam we start a 2 week break (jealous?).On Wednesday we're going to leave for Yunnan, a southern province of China where many of the minority groups live. I'll make sure to fill you in on my adventures down south! All i know so far is that its gonna be warm and beautiful!
Alright so next topic....shopping! You can't walk far without finding something you can buy here, whether its cute little notebooks with funny english misspellings such as "I beliebve i can touch the sky", clothes, or food! Last week we went to purse party heaven! As we were coming in we saw western looking women stuffing purses in the giant roller suitcases! When we went upstairs there were rows of shops filled with the top designer bags, a girls dream! Now i know i told you all about the sketchy backroom before, well everyone of these stores had backrooms, there were all sorts of hidden doors and rooms, like a fun house! One of the stores was called "Jinhao Golf", you know a little bit of Chinese with an American flare, oh ya and it sold sunglasses, ipods and video games. When we were walking to this shopping center it was just me and one of my other American looking friends, since well we kinda stood out, surprise surprise, aka targets for scams. Case #1- The tea scam. We were warned about this at orientation and thanks to our street smarts we didn't fall for it! Basically what they do is try and befriend you and ask to go out to tea with you, in our case they invited us to a "special tea ceremony" and then charge you a ridiculous amount of the tea and suddenly loose they're English skills.
next....
so all of you who have been abroad or experienced a major change, know the "roller coaster" feeling that happens. i think there are so many emotions that go into a something like this, that none of them come out subtle. While i did go away for school the change from Colorado to Ohio is worlds different then what I'm experiencing right now. If you're just reading this to get a little lesson on Shanghai you can take a break from this paragraph! I can't even begin to put into words all of this. i'll wake up one day (after snoozing the 2 alarms i set for myself obviously) and may wake up so happy to be in China and loving everything about it, ill walk to class past the respiratory disease hospital (safe right!) and be overlooking the smog, and spit in the streets and focusing on the great milk tea and dumplings, the new perspective I'm gaining about a society that i have never experienced, and culture that this city has to offer. Come lunch time it may be a totally different story. Now please don't get me wrong, i would never trade this experience for anything in the world. I couldn't be more lucky to have an amazing family to support me and inspire me (love you mom, dad, pari, megan, molly, anne marte) but it does have it's ups and downs but i know that is what it's supposed to be about. From high school when the main theme of one of my english classes was basically "is ignorance bliss?" i've known that you need both the highs and the lows the make like colorful and being here in Shanghai, where I'm doing almost everything for the first time, is showing me this truth.
(ok.... let the jokes begin, you know who you are!!)
On a less serious note, chinese soap opera's are ridiculous! Currently we are following the tale of 2 super power basketball players who i think are fighting over one girl! Also, Spongebob in Chinese? Yes please!
Unlike Lady Gaga i will pick up my telephone (or skype.e-mail)!
xin nian kuai le 新年快了
thats happy new years!
xoxo
Aryn
So for those of you who a) can't think of the perfect place to take you significant other on Valentines day of b) planning on spending February 14th with Love Actually, a box of pizza, and Ben and Jerry (Sandbar you know this what we would be doing, boys or no boys!) worry no more, you can celebrate the Chinese New Year. be cultural (what up Global Fusion) and stop worrying about this hallmark holiday! This year is the year of the tiger so get fierce. Fun New Years facts: This holiday is a very family oriented holiday, people go back to their hometown, for many people this is their one trip back per year, my laoshi (professor) is going home to see her family for the first time in half a year! The area around our apartments is starting to clear out, shops are closing for the New Year 新年. Since a lot of people migrate to Shanghai for work, there are not as many people that are actually from the city (chengshi-城市). So this holiday is about good fortune and luck so people will put a post of 副 (fu) upside down on their doors to welcome in good fortune and good luck. Also, the adults will give 红包(hong bao) which are little red envelopes filled with money, hello good fortune! The Chinese love their fireworks so people have been setting them off leading up to the New Year. Now these shows aren't set to music and planned like we think of fireworks shows its more college students who have a few extra kuai who are bored in our courtyard.... how i love china!
Starting tomorrow after our chineses exam we start a 2 week break (jealous?).On Wednesday we're going to leave for Yunnan, a southern province of China where many of the minority groups live. I'll make sure to fill you in on my adventures down south! All i know so far is that its gonna be warm and beautiful!
Alright so next topic....shopping! You can't walk far without finding something you can buy here, whether its cute little notebooks with funny english misspellings such as "I beliebve i can touch the sky", clothes, or food! Last week we went to purse party heaven! As we were coming in we saw western looking women stuffing purses in the giant roller suitcases! When we went upstairs there were rows of shops filled with the top designer bags, a girls dream! Now i know i told you all about the sketchy backroom before, well everyone of these stores had backrooms, there were all sorts of hidden doors and rooms, like a fun house! One of the stores was called "Jinhao Golf", you know a little bit of Chinese with an American flare, oh ya and it sold sunglasses, ipods and video games. When we were walking to this shopping center it was just me and one of my other American looking friends, since well we kinda stood out, surprise surprise, aka targets for scams. Case #1- The tea scam. We were warned about this at orientation and thanks to our street smarts we didn't fall for it! Basically what they do is try and befriend you and ask to go out to tea with you, in our case they invited us to a "special tea ceremony" and then charge you a ridiculous amount of the tea and suddenly loose they're English skills.
next....
so all of you who have been abroad or experienced a major change, know the "roller coaster" feeling that happens. i think there are so many emotions that go into a something like this, that none of them come out subtle. While i did go away for school the change from Colorado to Ohio is worlds different then what I'm experiencing right now. If you're just reading this to get a little lesson on Shanghai you can take a break from this paragraph! I can't even begin to put into words all of this. i'll wake up one day (after snoozing the 2 alarms i set for myself obviously) and may wake up so happy to be in China and loving everything about it, ill walk to class past the respiratory disease hospital (safe right!) and be overlooking the smog, and spit in the streets and focusing on the great milk tea and dumplings, the new perspective I'm gaining about a society that i have never experienced, and culture that this city has to offer. Come lunch time it may be a totally different story. Now please don't get me wrong, i would never trade this experience for anything in the world. I couldn't be more lucky to have an amazing family to support me and inspire me (love you mom, dad, pari, megan, molly, anne marte) but it does have it's ups and downs but i know that is what it's supposed to be about. From high school when the main theme of one of my english classes was basically "is ignorance bliss?" i've known that you need both the highs and the lows the make like colorful and being here in Shanghai, where I'm doing almost everything for the first time, is showing me this truth.
(ok.... let the jokes begin, you know who you are!!)
On a less serious note, chinese soap opera's are ridiculous! Currently we are following the tale of 2 super power basketball players who i think are fighting over one girl! Also, Spongebob in Chinese? Yes please!
Unlike Lady Gaga i will pick up my telephone (or skype.e-mail)!
xin nian kuai le 新年快了
thats happy new years!
xoxo
Aryn
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Since i can't figure out how to do this directly, here are some pictures!
I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
My first weekend adventure
Alright so attempt #2 getting this blog post up. Due to poor planning and shoty internet the first time i tried to post this i lost it all! So i didn't realize how much i needed to get out of the city until i was sitting in complete silence outside of a temple from the Ming Dynasty.
This past weekend a group of 13 Alliance students went to 南京 a city about 2 and a half hours outside of Shanghai （上海） Nanjing （南京） used to be the capital of China before it moved to Beijing after the civil war. While it is right behind Shanghai for most economic city in eastern China it felt less overwhelming than Shanghai.
Ok so in America （ 美国） we have pretty big personal bubbles. Think of when your sitting in the airport and there always seems to be at least one seat in between people and most people would choose to stand rather than take that awkward open seat in between two people. Well in China that bubble doesn't really exist. When we got to the waiting room at the train station, being the Americans（美国人） we were we sat on the end by ourselves with at least a chair from the person next to us. As the room started to fill up, people orderly and naturally sat in those "safety" seats. Not only when sitting down does the bubble shrink but when walking anywhere running into someone like they weren't even there is natural. Think New York City to the next power! When you have that many people in such small places i can't blame them for doing what that need to to sit down or get around.
As we got 15 minutes outside of the city I saw a very different view of 中国. There were run down shacks sitting on piles of garbage covered in smog. The layout of the cities that we passed through seemed to consist of a few sky scraping apartment buildings and then a few smaller buildings. On the train i was sitting next to a woman from China who was telling me how about 80% of the people in China （中国） are workers and they aren't treated well, which was evident in theses cities. While the peasants represent such a huge portion of the population that only represent 8% of the National Peoples Congress. I'll explain more about NPC in one of my next posts but if you interested in the framework of the Chinese political system i really encourage you to look it up, i just started learning about it today and there is so much more to they system then i expected.
OK back to 南京.....when we got into town we were able to bargain a good price for all of us to take a bus to our hotel (less than $2). When we arrived we were impressed, it had a bell boy and water fountain out front, now thats living high class, and i was less than $35 dollars for 2 nights. Well much to our dismay we were at the wrong hotel, our hotel was the sister hotel and it didn't even et the name hotel it was an "inn". None the less it was nice, comfy beds and hot showers. Lets be real, things in 中国 are cheap but not that cheap.
After we checked in we went to a night food market and i tried fried doughy squid balls, (Dad aren't you impressed you didn't even have to bribe me!). Nanjing seemed to have much fewer westerns than Shanghai, at least in the places we were. Even at the tourist spots my blonde hair stood out. Since it's less touristy people seemed to be more interested in us, a group of clearly western students （学生）. That night we went to a local bar and met so many great people. Many of them wanted to speak english so they would strike up a conversation, it was much less divided between expats and locals than Shanghai （上海）.
On Saturday （星期六） we visited the Sun Yet-San Maseolium. When we were buying our tickets there was a sign for all the discounts and the list included students, minors, the elderly, retired, serviceman, disabled and teachers, all pretty normal but it also said that one adult can take a child under 1.3 metes in for free, model workers, model heroes or models of morality at or above the municipal level got a discount, that made me wonder what the criterion was to be a "model". My politics professor, Dr. Liu, explained to me that this concept was emphasized due Mao's era. They wanted to promote ideals that benefited the Party while also empowering the people, giving them a role in the revolution. Being named a moral worker is decided by a committee that is part of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) but you do not have to be part of the Party to receive this title.The idea of a moral worker is not looked up to as much anymore because the criterion is more lenient now, there isn't a cookie cutter idea anymore. In my professors case he was named a moral worker at Fudan University after a year of working there but that wasn't as important as publishing work and succeding in the academic community. Also religious circles got a discount with a valid certificate, i wonder if my Dad's alter boy of the year certificate could work!?
For those of you who have not read your Chinese history books, Sun Yet San was the leader of the Nationalists (KMT) who fought against the Communists (CCP), who were lead by Mao（毛）. Sun Yet-San was also instrumental in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty. Once the internet decides to start cooperating i will hopefully load pictures of it! But it was placed on top of a hill and it overlooked this beautiful forest and well what we thought was a pretty haze ended up being smog, heres to pollution!
Some of you may be asking yourselves why the name Nanjing sounds so familiar but can't quite put your finger on it well this might be your answer, the Nanjing Massacre, also called the Rape of Nanjing. The Japanese occupied Nanjing for 6 weeks and killed around 350,000 people in cold blood and raped thousands of women. It was a true massacre, the Japanese were ruthless. However, like in many cases of history the Japanese claim that about 25,000 were killed, huge difference! In front of the museum were statues of people trying to flee the massacre. It was very moving, it brought this massacre to a more personal level, underneath the statues had the dialogue of the people. One of the statues was of a man dead and a child laying on of him and then another child standing just looking on in pain at the Japanese trail of destruction.
Now im home safe and ready for my next adventure. I'm getting involved in a program in Shanghai to teach english to 17-23 year old orphans and plan weekend activities with them. It seems like a great opportunity to get involved int he community and venture outside of the areas i know. Also, February 14th is the Chinese New Year so there will all sorts of celebration in Shanghai. They are already started shooting off fireworks that sounds like bombs everytime! On the 16th i leave for a 2 week long adventure to Yunnan Province in southern China. I'm not exactly sure what to expect from this but its much more rural than Shanghai and i've heard its beautiful.
Like always keep in touch!
xoxo,
Aryn
This past weekend a group of 13 Alliance students went to 南京 a city about 2 and a half hours outside of Shanghai （上海） Nanjing （南京） used to be the capital of China before it moved to Beijing after the civil war. While it is right behind Shanghai for most economic city in eastern China it felt less overwhelming than Shanghai.
Ok so in America （ 美国） we have pretty big personal bubbles. Think of when your sitting in the airport and there always seems to be at least one seat in between people and most people would choose to stand rather than take that awkward open seat in between two people. Well in China that bubble doesn't really exist. When we got to the waiting room at the train station, being the Americans（美国人） we were we sat on the end by ourselves with at least a chair from the person next to us. As the room started to fill up, people orderly and naturally sat in those "safety" seats. Not only when sitting down does the bubble shrink but when walking anywhere running into someone like they weren't even there is natural. Think New York City to the next power! When you have that many people in such small places i can't blame them for doing what that need to to sit down or get around.
As we got 15 minutes outside of the city I saw a very different view of 中国. There were run down shacks sitting on piles of garbage covered in smog. The layout of the cities that we passed through seemed to consist of a few sky scraping apartment buildings and then a few smaller buildings. On the train i was sitting next to a woman from China who was telling me how about 80% of the people in China （中国） are workers and they aren't treated well, which was evident in theses cities. While the peasants represent such a huge portion of the population that only represent 8% of the National Peoples Congress. I'll explain more about NPC in one of my next posts but if you interested in the framework of the Chinese political system i really encourage you to look it up, i just started learning about it today and there is so much more to they system then i expected.
OK back to 南京.....when we got into town we were able to bargain a good price for all of us to take a bus to our hotel (less than $2). When we arrived we were impressed, it had a bell boy and water fountain out front, now thats living high class, and i was less than $35 dollars for 2 nights. Well much to our dismay we were at the wrong hotel, our hotel was the sister hotel and it didn't even et the name hotel it was an "inn". None the less it was nice, comfy beds and hot showers. Lets be real, things in 中国 are cheap but not that cheap.
After we checked in we went to a night food market and i tried fried doughy squid balls, (Dad aren't you impressed you didn't even have to bribe me!). Nanjing seemed to have much fewer westerns than Shanghai, at least in the places we were. Even at the tourist spots my blonde hair stood out. Since it's less touristy people seemed to be more interested in us, a group of clearly western students （学生）. That night we went to a local bar and met so many great people. Many of them wanted to speak english so they would strike up a conversation, it was much less divided between expats and locals than Shanghai （上海）.
On Saturday （星期六） we visited the Sun Yet-San Maseolium. When we were buying our tickets there was a sign for all the discounts and the list included students, minors, the elderly, retired, serviceman, disabled and teachers, all pretty normal but it also said that one adult can take a child under 1.3 metes in for free, model workers, model heroes or models of morality at or above the municipal level got a discount, that made me wonder what the criterion was to be a "model". My politics professor, Dr. Liu, explained to me that this concept was emphasized due Mao's era. They wanted to promote ideals that benefited the Party while also empowering the people, giving them a role in the revolution. Being named a moral worker is decided by a committee that is part of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) but you do not have to be part of the Party to receive this title.The idea of a moral worker is not looked up to as much anymore because the criterion is more lenient now, there isn't a cookie cutter idea anymore. In my professors case he was named a moral worker at Fudan University after a year of working there but that wasn't as important as publishing work and succeding in the academic community. Also religious circles got a discount with a valid certificate, i wonder if my Dad's alter boy of the year certificate could work!?
For those of you who have not read your Chinese history books, Sun Yet San was the leader of the Nationalists (KMT) who fought against the Communists (CCP), who were lead by Mao（毛）. Sun Yet-San was also instrumental in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty. Once the internet decides to start cooperating i will hopefully load pictures of it! But it was placed on top of a hill and it overlooked this beautiful forest and well what we thought was a pretty haze ended up being smog, heres to pollution!
Some of you may be asking yourselves why the name Nanjing sounds so familiar but can't quite put your finger on it well this might be your answer, the Nanjing Massacre, also called the Rape of Nanjing. The Japanese occupied Nanjing for 6 weeks and killed around 350,000 people in cold blood and raped thousands of women. It was a true massacre, the Japanese were ruthless. However, like in many cases of history the Japanese claim that about 25,000 were killed, huge difference! In front of the museum were statues of people trying to flee the massacre. It was very moving, it brought this massacre to a more personal level, underneath the statues had the dialogue of the people. One of the statues was of a man dead and a child laying on of him and then another child standing just looking on in pain at the Japanese trail of destruction.
Now im home safe and ready for my next adventure. I'm getting involved in a program in Shanghai to teach english to 17-23 year old orphans and plan weekend activities with them. It seems like a great opportunity to get involved int he community and venture outside of the areas i know. Also, February 14th is the Chinese New Year so there will all sorts of celebration in Shanghai. They are already started shooting off fireworks that sounds like bombs everytime! On the 16th i leave for a 2 week long adventure to Yunnan Province in southern China. I'm not exactly sure what to expect from this but its much more rural than Shanghai and i've heard its beautiful.
Like always keep in touch!
xoxo,
Aryn
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