Spring Festival 2011-part 8--Zhengzhou

After a month of traveling, I finally arrive home in Zhengzhou.  Here's the February 7th Pagoda--the center of the city.

Unfortunately, the most guidebooks say about Zhengzhou is to leave and visit the surrounding area, which includes the world famous Shaolin Temple, situated in the Song mountains.  This is the home of Shaolin Kung fu around the world.  

My first time at the world renown site (after living here already for 6 months.  The sign in the background reads (read from Right to Left 少林寺 = Shao Lin Si = Shoa lin Temple)

The temple is both a Buddhist temple and an active Kung Fu training school.  As part of visiting the site, there are daily kung fu performances, like the one that was at my school earlier this year.  Here, a young monk demonstrates throwing a single pin through a sheet of glass only making a single small hole.

Annie and the famous Pagoda forests.  This is basically a monk cemetery.  The pagodas are the tomb markers and the number of levels represents the successes of the monk during his life.

While they may be young monks, they are still modern age teenagers.  Note the cell phones.  I actually have an ice skating friend who used to be a Shaolin monk.  He says it's exercise before breakfast, eat, study till noon, then kung fu until dinner, and then finish with kung fu before bed.

Now to the East of Zhengzhou lies Kaifeng, a former Chinese capital of several dynasties.  It's got all the tourist features without the tourists. Along with a school colleague--Jason (李强) and his friend Zheng Ting--we went to Kaifeng to see the Qing Ming on the River scenic area.  (清明上河图  Qing Ming Shang He Tu is one of the most famous Chinese paintings, and this area recreates that.  It also has playgrounds!  So we decided to be children again.

Zheng Ting on the final stage of the playground, the ripcord to the finish.

My turn! 

And Jason's try.

We actually did the thing backwards, so the zipline was going uphill, thus making it too hard for us to get to the other side.  We thought maybe a little push would help.

"I'll race you down the slides," Annie shouts!

Zheng Ting, the despicable prisoner.

The betrothal ceremony of the king's daughter.  The king comes out and puts on a show that he will throw a bow in to the audience; the man who catches it will marry his daughter. 

We were fighting to get away from the king's daughter after seeing her. And, you also note the other rarity for China--the lack of a crowd.  The "king" threw the bow into a crowd of 10 people.

Annie and I couldn't help but push more Western culture on these two.  Especially after Jason said that he doesn't like chocolate (greatly offending Annie), we had them try real donuts and coffee.  They had mixed reactions, but we were thrilled.

Again, the entire nation of China decorates to celebrate my year.  Someone must have told them I was coming to Kaifeng that day, so they put this up for me.  How nice.  Now the question, how can I fit it in my living room...

The Kaifeng tourist area also featured street performers, again, without much of an audience.  It means that there's loads of souvenirs and all at really good prices.

Arriving in China, I learned that my birthday is Children's Day.  I figure, I'll embrace this, thus why I decided to crawl through a rope tunnel.

Again pushing more Western culture on poor unsuspecting Jason and Zheng Ting, we went to Pizza Hut for the last night of the Spring Festival trip.  Annie returned to her town of Anqing where there is but a single McDonalds and one KFC.  We both agree that we don't usually crave Western food, but for that one food-like-home lust every few weeks, it's nice to have it available.

Well, after countless hours of flights, reading maps in Chinese, trying to understand broken dialect, and touring for a month, my first Spring Festival trip concludes.  (I realize I only recount this 2 months after it actually happened.)  Now to resume tales of daily adventures, including an old story that I was in the newspaper, my students painting eggs for Easter, and rules of daily life I've concluded from living in China.

Later Days,
Rick

Spring Festival 2011-part 7--Xi'An

We finally finish our flights and are in our second-to last destination--Xi'an, home of the terracotta soldiers and the end of the famous silk road.

Standing in the center of the city (actually just in front of the hostel) the bell tower looms as the center of the Feng Shui oriented city.  Important to Feng Shui is a north-south orientation, thus making Xi'an very logically laid out city.

We've made it to the site of the terracotta soldiers--the protectors of Qin Shi Huang's tomb (the first emperor of China).  Astonishingly, for as large as the soldiers' 4 pits are, they are only a fraction of the believed size of the emperor's tomb.  However, because the emperor insisted on having flowing rivers of mercury, the land is too dangerous to excavate (why did no one tell him that mercury causes cancer!)

The Muslim quarter in Xi'an is known for its array of shopping stalls.  Be prepared to barter, because they start at tourist prices until you show your disgust.  And don't buy their lame excuses "it's winter time and there are so few tourists, so I never sell anything."  They're just trying to sucker you into the sale.  They know it, so you should too.

The Irish and their potatoes (or anything that looks like it).  Part of Chinese traveling is trying food--both classic dishes and street food.  Here I let the Irish girl (Annie) go for the potato cake.

We finally found it!  Shadow puppets were one of the most popular form of entertainment.  Annie was stoked to find them, because her book says they can be found everywhere.  Well, no place we went had them, except, finally, Xi'an.  Being low tourist season, we even got a private show!

China still thinks coffee is for snack time.  Here's Starbucks at 8:00 a.m.  The only person here is another foreigner.  Imagine what this would look like if it were 8:00 a.m. in New York or anywhere. 

Can I keep 'em?  Replicas are available everywhere and in every size.  For different prices you can buy a simple soldier, an archer, a captain, or even a general or emperor...all for a price, of course.

Yep, I'd like to think I'm as important. :-D This statue is one of the few removed from the pits for display.  It, along with the other few, show that the soldiers were all painted in full color.  Unfortunately, light has destroyed the color.  And only one single statue was unearthed fully intact.

Welcome back to Xi'an...and China.  It's always reassuring to see a sight like this near the city center.  Oh, China.

My first Chinese teacher (with whom I'm take classes over Skype) is from Xi'an.  I finally got the chance to meet her in person.  She guided me through the most popular night food market as we sampled her childhood favorite, metal mirror cakes (a stickyrice with seeds on the outside and some sort of jam on top.)

Clara (my first teacher) and I in front of the Drum tower, the entrance to the Muslim quarter.

Next, we're off to Zhengzhou (my home) for the last bit of our 5-week paid winter vacation.  This job rocks!

Spring Festival 2011-part 6--Chengdu

We've made it to Chengdu, home of Sichuan cooking and pandas!  As Spring Festival continues, the lanterns come out.  Made entirely out of paper, these will be used for the 15th and last day of Spring Festival.

A 50-foot tall buddha.  You can either pay 80 yuan to walk along it or see it from across the river like we did for free!

As we watched the Buddha from across the river, we also watched this brat repeatedly throw garbage into the river as his parents sat by passively.  A little punk, we almost wanted to throw him in.

Pandas are among the pride of Chengdu, and are everywhere, including on cigarette cartons.  As Annie was thrilled by anything pandas, she had to get the picture.

The "red panda".  This little guy doesn't get as much attention as the traditional panda, but is still lovable.

Annie finally getting to see the pandas up close.  They say every year 1 person dies from jumping the fence and trying to hug a panda.  We almost bet this year it would be Annie.

We went to the panda conservatory around feeding time to watch the guys recline and munch on bamboo.

In style with vacation, kick back like this guy!

They may be cuddly, but they aren't always the most nimble.  It took this guy about 7 minutes to get out.

Also belonging to the the animals in Chengdu is this psycho puppy, biting and molesting everything he can reach--deceptively cute.

Spicy sichuan dumplings!  Awesome!  We were regulars in our short time there.

Sichuan opera with elaborate costumes and makeup.

Also at the performance was a hand shadow master.  Here he's showing an owl.

We also took the time to visit the monasteries around Chengdu.  Being on the border to Tibet, there's a heavy Buddhist influence.  And one night we stayed in the monastery, rising early to watch the monks at morning prayer.  The best part, however, was walking through a quiet monastery at night and hearing one monk going through ring tones for her cell phone.  The table pictured here features candles purchased by visitors and dedicated to loved ones and ancestors. 

Eating is important in Sichuan; we followed our travel book's recommendation to a popular restaurant, which was, unfortunately, closed.  However, just beside it were these two restaurants.  This was the definition of rivaling neighbors.  EVERY passer-by was hawked at from both restaurants "You hungry?  Come in!  Great food!"  The woman in blue here was the most vicious--like a feisty rottweiler preying on unsuspecting pedestrians to tempt them into eating.

Between temple visits, we stopped at an arcade, of course.  Rambo!  We mastered the game...after about 40 coins worth of continuing.  We gunned down enemies, blew up helicopters, and saved our comrades from exploding buildings. 

As hotel stays typically go, we met others staying in the hostel and shared a few beers together.  Here, we played "Ring of Fire" where every time you get an 8, you introduce a new rule.  After enough 8's, the rules add  up and included spinning around 3 times while being a moose before taking a drink.

And we finished in a Tibeten restaurant trying a variety of new foods.  The sausage and vegetable dishes were fantastic, but the butter tea was, well, a little hard to swallow as Annie shows here.

Spring Festival 2011-part 5--Kunming & Lijiang

We made it to blue skies in Kunming.  We flew from Guilin to Kunming, which turned out to be an eventful flight simply because we barely made it to boarding.  The Guilin airport has one flight every hour or so; thus the bus to the airport also runs every hour...or so.  Our hotel manager told us completely wrong time estimates to walk to the bus stop, bus duration to the airport, etc.  And once we finally got on the but to the airport we were both thinking, "This will be close."  We were calculating speed and estimated distance.  We were moving along on a nice highway, when all of a sudden construction made us turn off and take the equivalent of a mule's trail through fields to get to this airport.  All estimates were off from there.

We arrived at the airport 32 minutes before the flight, checked in in a rush, and hauled over to security.  Even without speaking enough Chinese to say, "We're about to miss our flight.  May we please cut?"  They saw the look on our faces and let us go to the front.  Any questions about items in our bags (small liquid bottle, corkscrew, etc.) we didn't argue and just ripped it from the inspectors hands and threw it away to avoid any delays.

Alas, we made it!  Kunming in Yunnan province featured amazingly blue skies.  There's nothing else to this picture, just the beauty that this rare sight in China provides.

The train ticket line was a) not busy and b) I was clearly at the window.  Yet this man had a question, so he pushed the turntable, which actually pushed me out of line.  He already had his ticket and everything.  Just a question.  But the concept of waiting has disappeared.  Sadly, this isn't the first time this happened.

Where are all the people?  This is one of the most populated cities.  On a normal day this place would be impossible to see the ground, for such enormous activity.  Yet, this day was Chinese New Years Eve, when all are at home with families.

Children playing with fireworks.  Correction, 4 year olds with no parental supervision playing with fireworks.  Every family launches fireworks in lead up to the new years and after midnight.  Safety standards aren't like they are in the West.

We took a night train to arrive in Lijiang, a UNESCO world heritage old city.  Here with drowsy eyes we watch the sun rise.

Arriving around 5:00 a.m. and waiting for the 8:30 sunrise, we were albeit anxious for the sun to finally crest those stinking mountains.

And with daylight, the city with it's old charm and festival decorations slowly awakes.

Hooray!  The sun, after 3 1/2 hours, is out.  Can I go to bed now?

The Mao wallet.  In every city I bought something red.  My friend, Annie, found this to be the funniest (it's got a red star, that counts.)  However, it became a bit embarrassing to use this to pay.

Mountain Black lamb seasoned and on an stick.  This 串 chuan is a very popular snack, and here in Lijiang, the 黑山羊肉 hei shan yang rou (black mountain lamb) is up there with yak meat as the best.  We went back, needless to say.

Annie and animals.  She's petted a tiger and elephant in Thailand, a lion somewhere, and she was determined to hold a monkey in China.  Mission accomplished.  Next is to hold a panda (for $100.)

This is a great picture to commemorate using the "Laowai card".  Being a foreigner (laowai) in China has both drawbacks and benefits.  This park usually requires an 80 Yuan admission, but we were at the exit gate and just wandered in.  Thanks to the ticket taker's indifference, we got in for free.  Best example to date, though, is a friend in Fuzhou who has an "Alien Card" to her favorite bar.  Because she's a foreigner, every time she goes to this bar she receives a bottle of vodka free.

Different regions have different fruit, right?  This looked like a peculiar one to try.  The salesman called it 金沙果 jin sha guo = golden sands fruit.  Well, it tasted like a coconut painted with varnish.  Dis-gus-ting!  Not only did they rip me off on the price, but we asked locals if they recognized it and they had never seen it before.  Chalk it up to the latest way to rip off customers.

As we asked for directions, this young man, Terry, was incredibly helpful and actually accompanied us for our time in Lijiang.  Together, we went to a hot pot restaurant to try a traditional Lijiang recipe.  Here Annie and Terry snack on another delicacy--fried dragonflies.  

Never forget, Mao is everywhere.  Here, he's actually opposite the cultural minority center.  And if you look at the building to the right, you'll see his reflection towering over the mountains in the distance.

Lijiang is known for 过桥米线 "cross bridge rice noodles".  The noodles are a regional specialty and the unique part is that after combining the ingredients, the soup noodles cook in the bowl in front of you.  Delicious.

We took a day to travel to the villages around Lijiang.  This area of China has a high presence of Chinese minority groups, including the Naxi Dongba, which I believe these elder women are.  Here they review Annie's picture of them.  Thanks to Terry, we asked if we could sit and talk with them.

Learning to play the Hulusi.  This was probably the worst place for bargaining.  They started the price at about 250 yuan and we bought it for 30.  This guy, however, reminds me so much of a Chinese Amery Kuhl.

More hot pot in Lijiang.  This overcrowded restaurant features staff dressed in traditional attire.  Yet, it was less-than-appetizing; diners regularly put bones, fat, whatever on the table.  We watched them clean the table from the previous guests and they used no cleaner, simply a squeegee and a bucket.

More fireworks for Spring Festival!

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The best store around--the Yunnan coffee shop.  The storekeeper was really proud to make every cup and introduced me to the siphon coffee maker.  It's making coffee with science!

We went to a show and this was one of the acts...writing on paper.  This is traditional Dongba script.  We can't understand it, so we made up our own story!

Of coursed they danced, but the best dancer is the last man in the back as he stares at his feet.  This he did the entire time and we couldn't stop laughing.

And this was their audience.