It was breathtaking to say the least. One of Adam and Dantzelle’s students took them to a fabulous little restaurant around the corner from the school. When they described the atmosphere they said think Communist. Okay, communist, nope nothing could have prepared me for this place. I’m just going to adding pictures, for pictures really do say a thousand words.

The back wall of the restaurant.

Hail to the leaders, can you name them all?

Can't beat those Waitress uniforms.

Great posters all over.

A flag or two, but in case you didn't get the hint this is a Chinese restaurant.

So I'm thinking they stretched that photo, I don't remember him being so wide.

Family Style, going to miss that to be honest.

One thing I’m still trying to get over is not lowering my voice when I say the word Communism. It is not equivalent with a bad word nor does it have a negative connotation here, yet I still throw side ways glances when I say it out loud. This restaurant was a little nerve jarring to say the least but everyone in it viewed it as any good American would view your grandmother’s kitchen. A wholesome place embodying all those home taught ideals.

So Mao’s Dinner is what I’ll call it.

I’m going with a Middle Eastern Stable Scene but in this case I guess I should say an Eastern Stable scene.

A Reagan family tradition is collecting Creches, it has become a family hobby as we begin traveling and widening the selections. I didn’t really put much thought into a Chinese Nativity before coming as this is not a Christian Country nor is it open to Christianity. When another member of the Branch shared a Christian wood carver with all of us I jumped on the chance. I surfed the website with Mom and found the ONE.

Chinese Nativity

Victoria  picked up my order and held it until I could get it from Qingdao. Last night I opened the box while in Qingdao and pulled out a few pieces to preview the Creche. Katie and I enjoyed the mini Christmas, and joked about not finding the Christ child. I just figured it was at the bottom of the box tucked away.

When we set it up this evening in my apartment we were all floored to discover the Christ Child was truly missing. I seemed to have an abudence of animals, or atleast more than I thought normal but no Christ Child. How exactly you forget to but the key component in the scene I don’t know but the proper channels have been alerted and I’m hoping to have him in time for Christmas.

Angel, I'm a little scared it will fall and break as it is not very secure.

The Wise Men from the East!

What's missing?

The trees are one of my favorite parts of this Nativity

The characters on top say "Christmas" in an ancient Script not the modern simplified

The Nativity is camphor which smells absolutly wonderful. It is so light weight which is a real blessing for transportion. It also came in a beautiful wooden box.

The following is a wall hanging Creche that turned out to be more beautiful in person than I had imagined. Well with three Creches hanging in my living room I think it will be pretty hard to miss the fact that I’m Christian.

My complete Chinese Nativity

Nativity with the Chinese Knots

Large Ornament Nativity

Were both up and ready by 7am so we headed out the door, no point in wasting daylight. Traveling with Victoria was a real treat. As soon as we were both ready we hit the road, we were both eager to see all the sites so it was a marathon of sorts.

Hotel Subway stop.

Before we headed up to Purple Mountain we decided to find the metro stop next to the hotel. As not everything was in Pin Yin I found it easier just to take a picture rather than try to memorize the characters. One plus to Chinese subways is that each entrance/exit is numbered which makes getting out on the right street a breeze. Some of the stations will dump you out on to as many as 8 different locations depending on the exit.

Jumped in a cab to head up to Purple Mountain, this time we had an illiterate cab driver. The night before the concierge had written out the instructions for us in Chinese to show the cab driver. He looked at the paper and shook his head, then I showed him a picture from my travel book and he brightened pulling into traffic.

Unfortunately we didn’t understand the mountain and the cab driver didn’t understand what we wanted so he pleasantly dropped us off at the foot of the mountain and took off. We looked around and I panicked for a min. Not a single English sign and no big ticket office. Okay this is a big site with more than one HUGE historical attraction so where are all the people? There was a nice couple by the big wooden sign with the layout of the mountain, thanks to Victoria’s nifty guide book we were able to match up characters and point to where we wanted to get to. The one thing I do have down in Chinese is numbers. So after a lot of gestures and the number 20 二十 repeated a half a dozen time we figured out we could take bus 20 up to Sun Yet-Sen’s Memorial.

The bus ride up the hill was another adventure in itself. One sure trick I’ve learned, chant the name of the place you are trying to get to in the poorest Chinese possible (which is no challenge) and when you get to the right stop half the bus is happy enough to kick you off. We finally made it to the top and found our way to the clearly marked ticket office. We purchased the full park pass but were unable to figure out where to catch the shuttle between sites.

The first stop was the Sun Yet-sen Memorial. It was magnificent. Victoria told me the memorial is almost identical to the Memorial in Taiwan.

Entrance to Sun Yet Sen's Memorial

Brief History: Sun Yet-sen is considered to be the Father of China. He is revered and loved by both China Mainland and Taiwan as he was the first official President of China. He was the leader of the Nationalist party prior to the split of Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communist party. He was a great man who was a true visionary for what China could become.

View from the top.

The memorial and view was breathtaking, both visually and physically after the hike up the stairs. The hike provided plenty of time for a history lesson on the founding of China and the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty. After China I think I’ll just laugh at a StairMaster. As they love to say in China, “It’s good for your health”. They use that line as an excuse for just about everything, especially their lack of elevators and love for long walks UP stairs.

Memorial Room

As we entered the Coffin Chamber there was a guard reminding visitors to be quite. This was the first place I’ve been in China that has requested reverence. It was a beautiful tomb. (I was not able to take a picture at the tomb, this is a postcard) Victoria said it was the complete opposite of Mao Zedong’s tomb in Beijing years ago.

Field Trip!

On our way back down from the Tomb we came across school groups on their way up. Of course I had to take pictures, it is only fair right. I was asked to be in two photos on the way down. Oh the stardom of being a foreigner in China. After a small rant of having your picture taken oh so obviously by Chinese Victoria reminded me that I too take pictures of Chinese to catalogue my trip and they are just doing the same. Okay so then I felt bad and had to agree.

The grounds were just so peacful.

Just didn't really fit the overall mood in my opinion.

We contemplated walking to the next area of the mountain but as we could not accurately judge the distance we finally just decided to find the shuttle. It is horribly convenient speaking English because really there is always a student who can muddle through directions. We found a group of school girls who helped us locate the shuttle, which turned out to be a tram. Victoria and I think someone here visited Disneyland. What do you think?

Bought my Chinese Christmas tree ornaments.

Designed by an American as a memorial.

Climbed to the top of the 8-story Pagoda. I had debated whether to go all the way up and boy am I glad I did, I’d  hate to lose face with the elderly man with a cane coming down the top flight. The view from the top story was well worth the work out. Some of the leaves were beginning to turn purple. I wish the view of Nanjing was clearer but that is too much to ask in any Chinese city it seems.

View from the top of the Pagoda looking down on the entrance.

Temple Courtyard

Visited the Buddhist temple. The temple was moved to the present location to make way for  a tomb. There are three major tombs on Purple mountain dating back to the Ming. Learned more about Buddhism.

Last stop on the Mountain was the Ming Tomb Complex. We took the tram from the Temple. We were not informed that the tram dropped us off at the end of the complex. Half way through the self tour we figured out we were going through the complex backward. We just assumed the DIY tour book was horribly organized, whoops.

We started at the final stage of the tomb. This is the Entrance into the burial section.

Further down the processional. It was one long complex with numberous buildings along the way. Each held significance in the funeral process ensuring a prosperous afterlife for the decesased emperor.

Another stop along the way, China is a very hands on country regardless of what the signs say.

The final Gate House before the Burial Mound. You just got to love the incomplete guide book. If a half constructed picture in the guide book does scream replica I don't know what does.

The book said they don't clean the walls because the grim gives the "ruins" an ancient feeling.

Thr burial mound, There was a path leading up to the top. I couldn't help but think of the burial mounds from the Lord of the Rings, the first book not the movies.

 

Remember this is backwards... This is the end of the Sacared path before you reach the tomb complex.

After touring the complex backwards we stumbled into the back door of the museum and proceed through the exhibits backwards, no joke. So the Ming Tomb was great backwards. Hint for park transportation, drop non Chinese guests off at the front!!  or at least have clearly marked signs reading EXIT at the drop off point.

We caught the bus into town and were able to find a metro stop back to the hotel. We crashed for an hour and then headed out to find a restaurant that served the local speciality, Nanjing Duck. Turns out the local speciality is hard to find unless you want the flash freeze foil take home. Our hotel provided the flash freeze take home version but did not provide a meal, go figure. We ended up settling for chicken wings and breaded pork. We were both pleased with our stay in Nanjing. We were able to see everything on our list with time to spare. I was so excited to have extra time in Shanghai!

Okay the only way I’m actually going to get everything posted is if I take it a day at a time. Please remember I am printing my blog as my scrapbook/journal for the year so please feel free to just skim through and look at photos. I know I get long winded so you’ve been warned. 

We left Victoria’s at 6:00am to catch our flight. She had arranged for a cab to pick us up and he was waiting just out side the building. When we got to the airport we found our ticket counter and were thrilled at the short lines, then out of nowhere a Chinese tour group saddles up next to us and we realize the first customer in line is the tour guide who is getting tickets individually for each member. Needless to say all the foreigners in line were ticked, there was a group of Russians in front of us.  After a few min a kind Chinese women tapped us on the shoulder and pointed to the other side of the counter to open lines. Thank you, check-in was a breeze from there.

Plane Food! and in China wet-naps get handed out at every meal.

The great thing about airports is the fact that check-in is pretty universal. You just hand the person your reservation and your passport, when they point to you bags you shake your head and make a carry-on motion and you are good to go. All relevant information is in numbers and letters and tickets are bilingual with English as the second language. The flight to Nanjing was only an hour and they gave you an entire package of crackers with a beverage. Do they even serve snacks on 1hour flights in the US?

Quick history Lesson:

• Nanjing literally means ‘Southern Capital’. It plays a prominent role in Chinese history as the seat of many of the dynasties. Beijing was actually only established as the main capital for the last two Dynasties, Ming and Qing. Nanjing as the power house of Ancient China became the headquarters for many of the riots and revolutions that have taken place in the last two hundred years. Many of the sites we visited reflected these historical ties. With Victoria as my guide I got a walk through of Chinese history as we visited each site.

Took a bus into the city easy enough. Most people have a background in English and with a combination of horrible Chinese, basic English and exaggerated hand motions things are fairly simple to figure out. Having all our reservations in Chinese was helpful too of course. Once at the hotel we asked directions to the first site and hopped on the bus hoping for the best.

Map of Nanjing, I'm pretty proud of myself for getting around with only a Chinese map!

We started with the Heavenly Palace also known as the Presidential Place in later years. It was a large complex with few English signs, and those were sent through google translate it seems. (not to diss google, Dad can attest how much I’ve come to love Google, but really you can NOT just translate Chinese word for word it just DOESN’T make any sense.)

Originally built as two successive ducal palaces in the early Ming Dynasty. It really saw its hay day as the headquarters for the Taiping Rebellion in the late 1800’s, Sun Yet-Sen was sworn in as President in the Early 1900’s and finally as the headquarters for the Chiang Kai-Shek and the Nationalist Party before fleeing to Taiwan.

The Chinese love models! So here is the first model of the trip. The Heavenly Kingdom Palace

The decorations throughout the rooms were phenomenal.

The Gardens were beautiful, I have fallen in love with the moon gates

the gardens were extensive so this is one pavilion of many throughout

The ancestor worship hall within the complex

More gardens

A modern picture of Sun Yet-Sen and the Nationalists

Chiang Kai-Shek's office

Next we took the bus to the South Gate. It was huge, well preserved and unlike most of the historical sites in China, original. Built in 1368-1386 by the first Ming Emperor Hongwu, it was the most extensive in the world at the time. (DK-China)

 okay can you tell what college drilled into me? Mom how do you site a guide book?

Zhonghua Gate -  On the south side of Nanjing, this is the city side of the Gate complex.

 

Side view of the Gate complex, there is a ramp on the side that leads to the Gate house area on the very top.View from the entrance

Ramp to the Gate house. Got to love the Cheesy Soldiers.

View from the top of the inner stairs looking towards the city

Some of the blocks contain the signatures of the brick maker and crew with the date.

View of the city wall extending out from the Gate

We decided to risk the walk to the Temple and set out with our Chinese map to find the Confucius Temple. Originally built in 1045 it was the seat of Confucius teaching the area for hundreds of years. Rebuilt in the 1900’s.

The entrance to the walking street on which the Temple was located. We just stumbled across it.

It was a pleasant walk and to be perfectly honest we just lucked out in finding it because I took a turn and was lost on the map for a second. The temple was tucked away down walking streets.

The Fuzi Miao Temple

Burning Incense in the temple courtyard

The stone inlay was spectacular. They represented various stages in Confucius Life.

Scenes of Confucius Life, all in stone

The dragons were my favorite

one of the many structures with in the temple compound

 

Prayer tree in front of the temple.

Market Stalls around the temple, great finds!

Went shopping in the market stalls. Found some beautiful fans, wasn’t sure if I really like the first few so I decided to wait, yeah should’ve gone back but oh well. I did find my NANJING piece of jewelry though. A beautiful jade pendent. (I collect a piece of Jewelry from each city I visit. Light weight non dusty collecting souvenirs, that are functional and bring back memories each time I wear them.)

China towns look like Chinatowns in the states!

 

A good taco pot-sticker! Yumm.

I have to admit I was dissapointed in the lack of enthusiasum by the person who lit this monument.

 We walked back to the South Gate hoping it would be all lit up in true Chinese fashion (aka completely tacky) but were disappointed to find it rather dull. I had the map and was the designated navigator. I still say according to the map the closer metro was to head south for what looked like three blocks. Well China maps seem to say one thing when reality says another. We ended up along a shady street that just made the wrong side of the tracks look pleasant. Finally we saw a metro sign but couldn’t find the entrance when we asked the shop keeper about the metro we just got confused looks. So when all else fails hail a cab and hand over the hotel business card!

Now for the part, a cab driver with a bad optometrist! He couldn’t read the business card, he even held his lighter up to it before finally giving up and asking a teenager on the sidewalk to read it to him. We did make it back to our hotel and turned in for an early morning!

To prepare for class I wiki-ed Halloween (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween). I didn’t have a firm handle on the origins of Halloween and its traditions and I wanted to be prepared. Intriguing article by the way, really sad that most reported cases of candy poisoning actually turn out to be the child’s parent’s fault.

1st class: I begin by explaining the origins of Halloween, the Celtic belief that on October 31st the Spirit world had power to cross into the real world and haunt the living . People would dress up to scare the spirits and keep evil at bay. Halloween began being celebrated in America in the 1840’s when the Irish, fleeing from the potato famine, brought over many traditions.

We still dress in costumes today but not all are scary. It is a time now to dress up in fun costumes that can represent anything.

Jack-o-Lanterns we originally carved into turnips and were passed of a fable about a man named Jack who tricked the Devil into the trunk of a tree and then was cursed to roam the earth with the only light he had at the time a candle.

2nd class: By the second class I had dropped the part about Halloween being brought over by the Irish and where Jack-o-Lanterns originated from.

3rd class: The Celtic tradition was gone by the third class, it was just getting to hard to explain and they really didn’t get it.

4th class: I think I finally had the structure down but trying to explain costumes to a culture who never dresses up is depressing. I would ask them to think about what they would be if they went trick-or-treating, it was liking pull teeth! For heaven sakes who doesn’t have a costume on the tip of the tongue? Even if that might not be really what you want can’t you just think of something, anything?

5th class: I had watered it down even further and just gave examples of what we did rather than try to explain why we did it. Costumes: Scary outfits most popular, Children often wear fun costumes. Parties: Bobbing for Apples, the String game (what do we call that game?), watch a scary movie or go to a haunted house. Jack-o-Lanterns a fun tradition to scare away evil spirits.

6th class: To be honest I’m glad I had watered it down because the last time I gave the lesson it was to my most difficult class. I had a hard time keeping their attention with this version. I can’t imagine if they had been my first class.

The blackboard by the end of the lesson.

Isn't she just drop dead gorgeous!

At lunch today Wendy invited me to come to her Wedding celebration. I completely misunderstood the event. She said James could meet me at my apartment and walk with me over. I figured it was just a little group reception in her office. Yeah, wrong, I turned the corner to building #11  and there were 2 buses, I mean 2 big tour buses full of people. We were lucky to find seats together in the back of the second bus.

I felt under-dressed wearing jeans and a pullover but as everyone was getting off work, and China does not seem to have a special occasions dress code I fit right in.

Traditional Wedding gift - Red Envelope with Money

The Reception was held in a posh hotel downtown.0

There were multiple banquet halls. This was ours.

James and Me!

Adam and Dantzelle

Duck - quickly becoming a favorite

Double Happiness Meatballs

—

Traditional dish served at weddings. As four is an unlucky number they serve a double serving of two meatballs as two is a very lucky number. So with the Chinese way of thinking when you see the FOUR meatballs in front of you, you should think oh Double twos not four.

Still learning to eat fish with eyes.

Celery and Octopus, who would have thought.

Traditional, Rice-Jelly-Dates Dish, yeah I stayed away from that after one bite.

Toasts and Speeches

There were so many guests two banquet halls were filled. Toasts, speeches and introductions were preformed in both rooms. I really must learn Chinese as by the middle of events they are too enthralled or drunk with the with festivities to translate and explain to the Foreigner. I’m pretty sure it is the equivalent of the Wedding Party toasts.

After the General Toasts at the head of the hall, Wendy and Peter made their way around to each and every table toasting with the guests. Needless to say the entire point of this tradition is to get the Groom as sloshed as physically possible. I would hate to see the statistics of Alcohol Poisoning in Grooms on this night.

This concluded the evening as the Bride and Groom passed out the customery sweets to the guests as they left their tables. I don’t know how long they’ve been using Chocolate but I wasn’t about to complain, I’m still not a huge fan of Chinese candy.

Chocolates are a traditional party favor - no complaints here.

It was a beautiful reception, although most went over my head the traditions, food, music and atmosphere made for a delightful evening. A little bird told me James is engaged with with a Spring Wedding planned, who knows I might get an invite!

I’m hoping by posting this goal I will have more accountability with achieving it.

Drum roll please . . . Study Mandarin for 60min each weekday.

Yes I get the weekends off because lets face it if I don’t set a realistic goal I’m never going to reach it. Besides then if I do study on the weekend I will have an added sense of accomplishment. Yes it is like giving a two year old a cookie for using his manners but still I need that sense of accomplishment if I’m ever going to get this language.

So far 2 for 2!

Katie and Thomas’s University plans weekend trips for their Foreign teachers. Their Wai Ban was kind enough to invite us along with their teachers. Along with us Americans, came the Japanese teacher, the Korean teacher and his family and the French teacher Jimmy.

Today we went to a cultural park above Weifang. Originally the area was home to poor farmers who lived off the land and were barely making enough to survive. They banded together and decided to open a cultural park a monopolize on tourism. The project seems to be flourishing and has created quite a niche for itself. The various minority groups of China are represented throughout the park along with various amusements that seem rather disconnected at points. Some of these attractions include, a monkey exhibit, bear boxing (no joke, we didn’t make it in time for the show, can’t say I was too depressed about missing that one), as well as large swing rides.  

View from the entrance of the park. Its a sprawling wooded complex on a rise above Weifang.

One of the many attractions, a monkey exhibit. There were no signs reading "don't feed the monkeys" so anything and everything was being thrown in by the spectators.

A shrine to the ancestors. There was a well next to it that was suppose to detect coming earthquakes as it was connect to a water source that connected with the sea. (I have no idea how that is suppose to predict anything)

This sign attests to the great translation abilities of the modern era. Obviously someone forgot to hit spell check.

Dai dancers, the resemble Thai dancers in my opinion, which could have been an influence as this miniority group comes from the south of China.

More Dai dancers

A view across the large river running through the grounds.

Three large water wheels, although the water was too low for them to function I couldn't figure out what they were suppose to connect to anyway.

As we were wondering we stumbled into a private residence on the grounds. The greenhouse and gardens were beautiful.

Banzai Trees were being cultivated in the garden.

 

This picture is for Dad. The greenhouse was huge!

 

Us girls! The weather was perfect.

 

A pleasant garden.

 

Beijing Opera was another venue we were able to see. I would love to go to one next year. I will never understand a word but it would be an interesting expierence all the same.

 

After a morning of activities we ate lunch there. The entire meal was made from produce and meat grown and prepared on the grounds. 100% organic! It was delicious.

After lunch we leisurely strolled back to the entrance. I had a rather interesting conversation with Jimmy on our stroll back to the van about the perceived stereotypes of both our countries. I had to laugh when he asked why American’s always thought of France and French to be so romantic. I blamed it on the media hype of Paris as “the Honeymoon” spot. It was a pleasant day all around.

 

I know I’ve been remiss in writing, I just haven’t felt like it. I know I know, that’s no excuse but I gave it just the same.

After the afternoon out I went to the bus stop with Bonnie, I must admit a little apprehensive as I was cutting it close to 6pm. The buses out to my school stop at 6pm and the price to get home jumps from ¥1 to  ¥8 for a cab. Yes, I’m a cheap skate, I want to travel at the end of the semester and I sure as heck am going to penny pinch to get there.

Well standing at the bus stop praying I hadn’t missed the last bus I was much relieved to see a #28 up the street. I stepped off the curb and into the mass of bodies clamouring to get to the bus. Then out of no where I seemed to hit a brick wall, the normal elbow jabbing body pushing stopped and no one is moving, then the yelling started. Now I’m not saying raised voices someone has been a little ruffled here, I mean full out ‘You killed the family pet’ scenario! I still don’t understand a lick of Chinese and was just concerned about getting on the bus, so I did what any confused Western would do, I took advantage of the confusion and just pushed through the crowd squeezed around the yelling gentlemen and swiped my bus card.

How long can a yelling match last before the guy gets kicked off the bus? Well obviously it is a lot longer in China. I’m not exaggerating I timed it! 7min. Now let me explain just some of the insanity that took  place. The customer was a middle age middle class man standing at the front shaking his fist at the driver. It was getting heated and a woman at the front obviously took the side of the driver but still couldn’t get anywhere with the disgruntled customer.  Soon the whole bus was in an up roar, shouts from the back, groans and angry sighs from everyone. Some people didn’t feel like this bus was worth the trouble or wait and disembarked for another.

I finally broke down and asked the girl next to me if she spoke English. With a sheepish grin she tried her best to explain the feud. From what I gathered, the man was demanding his fare back from the driver for some reason. I about went through the roof!  Let me at him I’ll give him the whole ¥1. Holy Smokes! Seriously the customer just wants his ¥1 back. I understand the drivers position no refunds but really couldn’t the rest of us who would like to get home today pool together a ¥uan.

Oh the argument peaked when the driver just decided to go and turned the bus back on, oh as a way of persevering gas the bus drivers here turn off the bus at stop lights and during heated arguments apparently. So the bus driver turned the bus back on and begins to pull back into to traffic with the disgruntle customer yelling away and he (disgruntle customer) reaches over and turns off the ignition! Okay, that has got to be the straw that broke the camel’sback, right?  Nope the argument just goes on. If I thought there was another bus coming I would have got off then!  I finally just stick in ear phones and settle in for what seemed like the evening.

Eventually we are on our way. I still don’t know how it ended with the customer but the bus started and the occupants erupted in signs of clear relief and joy.