Supposedly if I did this correctly there should be a video below.

A Chinese Birthday Candle. Doubt it would be approved in the States.

Katie and Thomas have left. I really don’t know what else to say but that my whole world is crashing down around me.

Often when I talk to people from back home they say I’m brave for moving to China but here’s the secret. Its not bravery I’ve always had Katie, she’s my backbone and courage all wrapped up in a beautiful friend. Originally when I was debating whether or not to stay another year it was Katie’s encouragement that they would be staying that put my objections to rest. When their plans changed I don’t think I really took the time to reconsider my own decision. To be honest I didn’t contemplate a year in China without Katie and Thomas as it was just unimaginable.

Now that they have gone the reality has hit. When I move to the new school I’ll be 45min from Kelly and once again on my own. I’ll be at a new school and once again dealing with the unknown.

Yes its the same city and I’ve heard a lot from Katie and Thomas about Weifang University but that does not put to rest all my fears of a new year. I hope that someday, preferably soon I can look at this as a new opportunity to grow and learn but for now I’m still struggling to get over the initial fear.

Katie and Thomas have been and will continue to be great friends. They are the kind of people who make you better through their constant example and never ending encouragement. They are the kind of people you want on your wagon train!

Thank you, you two for always being there for me this year. Best wishes in all your future endeavours. And for the record Nan is still looking for two more English teachers, its not too late to come back in the fall.

My first glimpses of Tibet

The view was spectacular and I lucked out with a window

 Our new tour guide met us at the airport. He welcomed us to Tibet giving each person I white scarf. After our welcome he quickly gave us the rundown on altitude sickness. Prior to Tibet I’ve never been one for health warnings honestly. I’m young, healthy why not be careless when it comes to travel. I’ve some how managed to escape contracting any disease or parasites before, goodness knows how I’ve tried to contract a tapeworm. So why did Marvin’s current health speech peak my interest? Well let me give it to you roughly and you decide.

Everyone will experience altitude sickness. The degree will vary but be prepared for the following symptoms:

Shortness of breath

Dizziness

Headache

Vomiting

Diarrhea

Achy ALL over

Those who have the flu or a serious cold should not go to Tibet as their symptoms will only get worse and require immediate evacuation.

If you experience any of the previous symptoms to an uncomfortable degree you should contact your guide and medical attention will be sought for. If any water accumulates in your lungs you must be evacuated immediately. At this altitude it could be deadly in a matter of hours. (Okay, that was the clincher)

How to avoid increasing symptoms:

Do not shower for the first day and a half (If you get cold your body is unable to warm up again)

No alcohol (that was tough)

First day rest, don’t do anything strenuous or physical.

HYDRATE

Eat little

No greasy foods

Not only did I listen to the medical warnings, I took notes. I made it out alive with only a few set backs.

The airport is an hour and a half outside of the city. Marvin was a very insightful tour guide. The ride in was filled with history and culture. It was absolutely wonderful. Once we got to our hotel, my headache and dizziness had peaked, I decided to rest up for the afternoon as advised.

About 5 o’clock the gang assembled and decided to hit the town. Our hotel was in an amazing location. We were a block from the heart of the City. The Jokhang Temple is in the middle of town surrounded by a huge market. Together we explored the surrounding area and took in the clean glorious air.

Pilgrims circling the Jokhang Temple

 There are three main pilgrim routes in Lhasa. The smallest is the walk around the Jokhang Temple. The pilgrims circle the temple clockwise chanting the Buddhist mantras and rotating prayer wheels.

Central Lhasa

 The streets surrounding the temple are filled with vendors. Each stall has an abundance of wares for sale. Beautiful jewelry (my favorite of course), clothing, trinkets and various cultural objects.

Nothing beats a water fight on a hot afternoon.

It didn’t take long before we were tired. Adjusting to the altitude was not as easy as I’d anticipated. Even after a four hour nap, two hours of browsing the stalls felt like a marathon. We found a shady bench along the street and enjoyed the water fight out of the line of fire, or so we thought. The little girl was having a go at her neighbor. It seemed like an ongoing battle as he always managed to get out of the line of fire at the last min. Her mother didn’t seem that worried as ou can tell.

Potato Yak soup, delicious

 Day Two:

The first day we arrived and took it easy in hopes of accumulating to the altitude. Day two was the day of stairs. We began the morning with a trip to the Summer Palace on the outskirts of Lhasa. The buildings were spectacular.

Most of the buildings throughout Tibet still follow the traditional style

The doors throughout Tibet were fascinating

Mastiffs are the mascots of Tibet

The theater and entertainment area at the Summer Palace

The Summer Palace for the Dali Lama

The summer palace was beautifully decorated throughout

 After visiting the summer palace we went to a factory to look at Buddha Stones. It is a cylinder shaped stone that has been uniquly carved from a bicolored stone with a unique pattern. I will try and add a picture later. In the same factory we were able to see the making of traditional Tibetan rugs.

Traditional Tibetan Rugs

The Potala Palace

I just couldn't get over how clean and blue the sky was

The stairs were never ending

Katie was the official step counter. She tallied our ascent at 366 steps in total. Now you may look at that and think not so bad but 366 steps at 11,800 ft is quite an accomplishment in my opinion.

The traditional Window designs were fascinating

Don't forget your Umbrellas

For those who remember my post on the Chinese attachment to umbrellas I have to give them this one, I’ve never felt the sun so strong in all my life.

Open Market

We finished the afternoon with a trip to the Jokhang Temple. This temple houses a statue of the original Buddha. It was brought to Tibet as a dowry for the princess who married the King who united Tibet.

Potala Palace - Evening

 When I get home ask me about this evening and what happens when you try to set your bag down in the square.

For every one’s protection and the ability to keep up this blog I’m going to turn off the comments for the following few posts.

After leaving Xi’an we met up with the tour group in Chengdu Saturday morning.

 That after noon we went to the Giant Panda Base. Really quick a few things I’ve learned about Pandas: 1. they are very picky eaters, there are 5 varieties of bamboo of which the Panda will only eat one. 2. they are temperamental when it comes to weather and when the weather gets warm they must stay in the AC. 3. If they give birth to twins they will only raise one and leave the second to die. 4. They refuse to adapt to their surroundings which leaves some scientist wondering why we aren’t taking a hint from mother nature and letting them go extinct.

I’ve come to decide they are just the supermodels of the animal kingdom which leaves every other animal wondering why they get so much attention when they refuse to follow the rest of the group. I’m not sorry if I see, cynical I’ve never been a real animal lover and quite frankly they are just not as cute and cuddly as I thought they were.

The Great Panda, or should I say the Great Picky Panda

No if only I could afford to spend my days like that all would be right with the world

Not the enclosures I would have imagined. But then again I grew up with the Chaffee Zoo in Fresno

The Red Panda is definitely more entertaining to look at.

Yes, I'm going to go with a member of the raccoon family on this one.

The Reserve was beautiful

 After the Panda reserve we had a wonderful dinner and then went to see a Sichuan Variety show. The different acts highlighted the various arts popular in the province as well as the China as a whole. The fist act was that of Beijing Opera. Before I’d felt inclined to go to a Beijing Opera performance as it was a traditional art of China, now I think I’ll leave that ticket available for some who, how shall I say it, appreciates that kind of ear splitting, headache inducing performance.

What's a traditional showcase with out Beijing Opera

 The Shadow puppets were quite impressive and I felt like a little kid taking pictures of each and every one. Does anyone else see Scooby Doo or is that just me?

Now that's an impressive shadow dog.

My favorite shadow puppet

 I was grateful our tour guide explained this act prior to the show as I appreciated much more understanding the context. It is a common belief that in the Sichuan province the women wear the pants. In this act the man arrived home late, after losing his shirt in yet another gambling game his wife makes him go through a series of repent acts. Each act must be complete with a full oil lamp balanced atop his head.

And who says men can't be trained...

 The first is a reenactment of a famous dialogue between a husband and wife, he must play both parts with acceptable gestures, voice inflection and so on. Another feat is that of crawling under the two benches and back again without touching the lamp with his hands.

Quite a feat, I was enthralled.

 A musical number was preformed on the Er Hu.

The Er Hu, it is beautiful to listen to.

 Face Changing is a unique performance in China. I once watched a TV special on the reigning master of face changing. He can do over 100 face changes in a single performance. The performer changes the mask so quickly it seems as if it is done by magic.

Traditional Face Changing Show

 The next morning we went to LaShan. When we returned we browsed through the Old Town in enjoying the low altitude for one final night.

My new obsession - hair sticks

Old Town Chengdu, pricey but a wonderful atmosphere.

ummm...not much I can say

 That evening we were on our own for dinner. We stumbles across a BBQ restaurant and we decided to give it a try. We didn’t exactly understand what we had gotten ourselves into but enjoyed it all the same. We soon realized it was an all you could eat buffet and Thomas and I decided to make the most of the meat selection.

All you can eat smorgasbord, and only 29kaui

Okay so not exactly following any health codes but....

 

 Katie, as a culinary student unfortunately knows all the health code rules and was horrified to see the conditions from which we selected the food. But in the end we all knew we’d eaten worse here so as long as we have Imodium who really cares.

I must admit it was a delcious meal. The seasonings were delicious and all you can eat meat, I was in heaven.

My two week escape around Southwest China started in the ancient city of Xi’an.    

We left Weifang Wednesday morning and took the train to Qingdao. Katie wanted to hit up Jimo one final time and with to objections we all tagged along.  I ended up purchasing 3 more pearl necklaces. We caught a taxi to the airport and had a rather pleasant even more surprising, rather long conversation with the taxi driver. Between the three of us, Katie, Thomas and I we understood about 85% of what was said.    

Our plane to Xi’an landed early evening and we caught the shuttle into town. We soon found our hostel which was conveniently located at the south gate, great location for taxi drop off, Nan Men 南门 is easy to say and remember. We tried to find the large antique market but must have missed it as we ended up wandering narrow alleys with less than pleasant aromas.    

We turned in for the night and soon discovered why the room was so cheap. NO AC. We had figured booking the basement would be cooler but we hadn’t taken into account we were next to the laundry and boiler rooms. To keep things pleasant lets just say I’ll be more than happy to pay the extra 25 kuai a night next time.    

As usual I had my activities for the day booked solid and started early.    

First stop: Small Wild Goose Pagoda -    

Small Wild Goose Pagoda Bell Tower

 The Small Wild Goose Pagoda, is one of two significant pagodas in the city of Xi’an. The Small Wild Goose Pagoda was built between 707–709, during the Tang Dynasty under Emperor Zhongzong of Tang (r 705–710). The pagoda stood 45 m (147 ft) until the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake. The earthquake shook the pagoda and damaged it so that it now stands at a height of 43 m (141 ft) with fifteen levels of tiers.  The pagoda has a brick frame built around a hollow interior, and its square base and shape reflect the building style of other pagodas from the era.    

During the Tang Dynasty, the Small Wild Goose Pagoda stood across a street from its mother temple, the Dajianfu Temple. Pilgrims brought sacred Buddhist writings to the temple and pagoda from India, as the temple was one of the main centers in Chang’an for translating Buddhist texts. The temple was older than the pagoda. The temple was originally called the Daxianfusi or Great Monastery of Offered Blessings by Zhongzong, until it was renamed Dajianfusi by Empress Wu Zetian in 690.  (wikipedia.org)    

Small Goose Pagoda

Memorial Steele with in the Temple Compound

After visiting the Small Wild Goose Pagoda we went to the Shaanxi Museum. It was a beautiful collection of artifacts collected throughout the province. Shaanxi Province is known for its neolithic cultures and long history of settlement. We got a preview of the Terra-cotta warriors and many magnificent bronzes.    

Before heading back into town we stopped at a small Temple mentioned in my guide book. It was a peaceful experience. The temple was under going major renovations but we came during lunch as there was no one working at the time. It is always amazing how even though we were in the middle of a busy neighborhood the grounds were peaceful.  

Major renovations were underway at this small temple.

 We headed to the Muslim corner for lunch and an afternoon of sites. First we strolled through the shopping streets as we mede our wat to the Great Mosque.  

The back market streets, aka Tourist traps

The old town shopping area had an upbeat thriving atmostphere that was a pleasure to stroll through.

^{The Great Mosque – Xi’an}

Although it was Muslim there was a strong Chinese influence

After visiting the mosque we continued to wander through the Muslim Quarter looking for a place to eat. The Muslim food is the pride of Xi’an and we were not about to pass that chance up. 

Umm, should someone say something?

We decided on fresh pulled noodles in a spicy broth. Yumm 

Fresh pulled noodles, nothing beats food from Xijiang - Uyghur people

We spent the evening roaming the town and turned in early for a good night’s rest, or atleast as good as one can get when sweating like a pig.   

Friday was the Terra Cotta Warriors. We had gotten directions from the hostel on how to take a bus out to save money. We left in what we thought would be plenty of time but well nothing ever goes as planned. We finally reached the Train Station and ran like crazy to the bus area. We spotted our bus and made a mad dash to the door. What a relief, we made it with two mins to spare, no exaggeration. I was horrified to discover had we missed it we would of had to wait an hour for the next. We settled in for the hour out to the site. It was well worth all the hassle and worry.    

Pit 1 - Infantry & Calvary

The Terracotta Army is the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China. The terracotta figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by some local farmers near Xi’an, Shaanxi province, China near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. The figures vary in height (183–195 cm – 6 ft–6 ft 5in), according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits. (wikipedia.org)      

Each are distinct and spectacular in its own right

Excavation and remodeling is still underway and will continue to be so for years to come.

The work done is phenomenal.

 The opportunity to see this piece of Art History was truly spectacular. No slide can ever compare with the opportunity to see it first hand.     

The site of the well

Pit 2

The world famous "Archer"

Pit 3 - Command Headquarters

After a long morning at the Terra Cotta Warriors we decided to take a leisurely bike ride around the city wall. Well for the other three it was leisurely, I was just grateful I made it.   

Xi'an City Wall - Restored obviously

9km once around

For the record I’ve never claimed to be athletic. You rented the bikes for 1½ hours, for 20kuai after that each additional 10min was 5 kuai I was more than happy to pay the extra but as we were all on the same ticket I wouldn’t put it past the Chinese to charge everyone for my lack of athleticism. So the last thirty mins was a made push to avoid paying everyones late fee. I did it, and true to their character not one of them made me feel bad for falling behind.    

Xi’an was a wonderful city. We lucked out with beautiful weather; it had remained in the 80’s each day with cloud cover. We had be worried as Victoria had gone the week before and the weather had not dropped below 95 the entire time. I happily have crossed off yet another item from my bucket list! 

DDR - A universal hit.

Kelly, Katie & Me!

We stood in line and watched in amazement as the Chinese completely missed the point of Bumper Cars. Yes bumper – as into bump the other cars, we knew it wasn’t a miss translation as we had looked up the word to get tickets. Why then were they avoiding the other cars with strained deliberation? Katie burst out laughing when she heard some one apologize for BUMPING another car. Sure enough, we all strained to listen over the music, when someone actually did bump someone there was an audible apology and a greater attempt at avoidance.  

I don’t know what shocked us more the fact that they were being so curteous or their display of ligitamite driving skills. It was as if their daily driving was a giant game of bumper cars and this was their chance to unleash their mad driving skills.   

Oh just wait for the Americans to get in, there were going to be no apologies and excessive force resulting in whiplash. That is the whole point of bumper cars right!   

Nothing like neon strobe lights and blaring techno music to put you in the mood for reckless driving.

I've found my stress release!

Bumper Cars in China are only fun with other foreigners!

To be fair we all did try our best to ensure the safety of the cautious Chinese drivers. A few got into the true spirit of bumper cars once they saw the havoc the five of us were raining on each other. Needless to say Bumper Cars has now become a common time killer!

Maybe someday I will be the foreigner that turns out to be the lifesaver for entertainment. Nothing beats watching a film in the theater, even if the movie turns out to be  bust.

Daria’s Chinese is amazing. She has made arrangements with the theater to begin showing films in English on a more regular basis. A bit of a splurge yes, but oh so worth it. If we can guarantee at least 10 tickets they are willing to show the film in English with Chinese subtitles.

This week’s film was Clash of the Titans. Needless to say I was stoked, come on Greek Mythology nothing gets more twisted and entertaining then that pantheon! About 10 min into the film I realized the writer had somehow miss placed his copy of Bulfinch’s Mythology! Okay  maybe he forgot he was using that one as a doorstop but what about his quick reference guide, Edith Hamilton’s Mythology?Its not like he is writing about the obscure adventures of Gilgamesh and Utnapishtim! It’s GREEK MYTHOLOGY for crying out loud.

The orgins of Perseus was completely off, the reason for slaying Medusea was botched and don’t get me started on the Jinn! They aren’t even Greek.

So the film was not an academy award winner, but English entertainment on the big screen is  nonetheless English entertainment on the big screen. At least the inaccuracies gave me a reason to return home and again brush up on my Greek mythology. So after all my complaining I had an enjoyable night and I’ve finally learned the secret to 3D films, back row seating.

Our new favorite restaurant is a Uyghur Barbecue eatery down a back alley. Katie and Thomas have always been the adventurous ones for which I am most grateful. For their guts have introduced my stomach to some scrumptious food. The latest of which was this Northwestern Uyghur cuisine.     

Thank you for your adventurous side.

Nothing beats a great BBQ

The main dishes are skewers of meat and vegetables.  As the Uyghurs are typically Muslim there is no pork. The meat is typically beef or goat. The vegetableselection is varied but our favorites are the potato and eggplant.   

The restaurant uses a combination of spices that is mouth watering. It is all prepared in front of the restaurant. After 6pm the restaurant often remains packed until well into the night. It is among a few restaurants to remain up open until well into the mornings on the weekends.   

The cooks are constantly trying to keep up!

Tubs and tubs of prepared skewers are constantly being prepared. Once ordered the skewers are moved to the long BBQ in the the front. It is a long narrow channel that has hot coals continually added.   

The skewers are laid across the top, spices are added and then they are rotated to the perfect doneness.   

Anyone up for a game of pick up sticks?

It is not uncommon for the skewer count by the end of the night reach well over 100.    

And before my vegetarian family members comment on that count, its the veggies that contribute the most they come on double skewers.   

My latest favorite is the fried mantou (steamed bread). It’s the closest thing to toast I’ve been able to find in this county.   

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The following pictures are NOT for the faint of heart nor for non-meat eaters. I’ve added these pictures for completeness sake but warn, you view at your own risk.

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I'm pretty sure this was our dinner.

  The meat is often slaughtered and cleaned in front of the restaurant. This is a picture of the goat that would soon become our dinner.     

I had to take a double look when I first saw this.

In America we are often far removed from the animals we eat, in China this is not the case.   

To most American’s it seems meat is just a food group. As we are accustomed to boneless skinless meat that bears little resemblance to the original animal it is often hard for me to stomach meat here that still has the head attached or in this case in the front of the restaurant.

Bei Da Huang has become one of my favorite restaurants. Unfortunately, tonight it did not hold up to all the hype I’d dumped on it when showing it off to Katie and Thomas. They still enjoyed it and promised to return but I was disappointed in the usually fantastic meals. 

One of the reasons I love it so much is the amazing picture menu! You don’t need to know a character to order your favorite food.  I had originally planned the dinner so Wendy and Peter could meet Victoria but Wendy didn’t feel well at the last minute. I hadn’t backed out of the dinner knowing with out Wendy I could still order clearly. That seems to be the catch at trying to restaurants.

Pumpkin Fries dipped in sugar

This dish is the reason to live. Yes, Pumpkin fries dipped in sugar. The two best things to happen to food, a deep fryer and a sugar coating. This is the costomary results of the dish, delightful deliciousness. 

Today however the oil was old and saturated with the previous dish FISH. Yes it was as horrible as it sounds.

Luckily Katie and Thomas knew no better and enjoyed the rest of the dishes immensely. I guess we will just have to return to remedy the bad experience.

The grapevine is a wonderful if not inconvenient thing at times! It is probably best that we discovered this little treasure trove so late as I would have gone broke making purchases and then had no way to get them all home.

Katie had been told by Kelly who had been taken by Charlotte who had been taken by Daria who had been brought by someone to this little painting school downtown.  They produced originals as well as reproductions of contemporary as well as traditional works of art. It sounded too good to pass up so we got verbal directions to a side street without any specific address.

Can I just say if you ever have to find a little place with no address,  only verbal instructions to go by, in a foreign country in which you really don’t speak the language, Katie and Thomas are the two to go with. They can find anything. We hopped on the bus, Thomas found the stop and we began looking in window fronts for what we wanted. We soon found a small school but when we walked in a children’s calligraphy class was in session. The teacher soon directed us further down the street. He didn’t speak English but between the three of us we are getting quite good at charades. We discovered this was an annex of the school but we were looking for the main building.

Just a sampling of what we browsed through

We soon found the main part and headed in. Again as it was Saturday classes were in full swing. Drawing classes downstairs, with still life, and calligraphy classes upstairs. We met the director who turned out to be the contact Kelly had mentioned.

She happily took us on a tour then led us back to the annex to look at paintings.

I was a little shocked when she started pulling out manila envelops with folded paintings. Katie saw my hesitation but reminded me that Kelly said their mounting jobs were phenomenal and all imperfections would vanish in the mounted work. We hungrily sorted through works with Xiong explaining their origins.

Some were originals by local artists or professors others were replicas of the great masters. Katie and I started forming piles of possibles. Prices ranged from ¥10 – ¥80 for the paintings with a flat ¥30 mounting fee.

I soon found two pieces I just couldn’t live without and three small flower pieces that I thought would be a beautiful gift. I arranged to pick up the mounted works the Saturday before I was to leave for America.

(3 graces/Lady with Blue / Flowers)

Second choice was still beautiful!

When I went to pick them up I unwisely  agreed to browse through their new works with Katie. I fell in love with yet another piece and agreed to purchase if they could rush mount it before I left on Tuesday. Xiong said she could and I hastily agreed.

I returned Monday afternoon to pick it up, to find a rather distraught Xiong. She told me she had written something down for me to read as she wanted to make sure I understood it all. She had had to send the piece to a friend to be mounted that weekend because he husband had been out of town. It was mounted and ready to go when her friends shop had been broken into and robbed. My piece along with others and cash had been stolen. There had been two Cherry Blossom works and so she quickly mounted the other and had it mounted to give to me. She felt awful and apologized profusely. She gave me this piece free of charge with an additional flower painting.

Second Choice was still beautiful although that first piece was AMAZING! So now I have no excuse for empty walls. I mean really with the prices hoovering around $12 for portable art lookout next semester.