Torch relay comes to Nanjing

Photo from QQ.com

Yesterday, the Olympic torch relay came through Nanjing. The Chinese roommates began prepping the day before, spreading hats and small flags between them. The morning of my roommate went with the Chinese department to stake out a spot on the route at 7 a.m. The relay was set to start in south Nanjing at the aptly named Olympic Stadium and go to the Drum tower, which is only about 15 minutes down the road. My impression was it started at 8 and was supposed to arrive at the end at 10:30.

My preparations involved deciding to skip class. I woke up at 8:06, just after my classes were supposed to start. I texted my classmate Kelly, and she said after only two of six students came class was canceled. The same happened with all the other classes as well. I woke up, threw on the clothes from the day before, and got some noodles for breakfast on the street as the wontons I normally get were sold out because of the crowds.

I found my roommate and classmates on the street. Despite a million people probably being along the torch route, it was long enough that I didn't have a problem fitting in, especially since my height enabled me to see over most everyone's head. As we waited, people yelled the chant 中国(Zhongguo, China)，and the crowd would reply 加油 (Jiayou, Hurray!). Popular variations included 奥运 （Olympics)，加油！，南京 (Nanjing), 加油！，北京，加油！The Chinese department students sang a couple national songs. Pictures were taken with all kinds of China and Beijing accouterments. This is when I photojournalist must have taken my picture, above, which appeared on QQ.com along with pictures of a couple of my classmates.

At about 10:15, the torch got to us. We were right at a hand off point in the relay. A huge media and police entourage came, then the torch runner. Anything that came by got big cheers from the crowd. The middle age woman lit the bald middle age man's torch, and he ran off. Everyone involved is thrilled.

We milled about after, went and ate baozi/jiaozi, and I went to 40 minutes of my second class, which most people went to from 11 to 12. Everyone was still decked out in Zhongguo gear, my professor just talked about the torch and went off on tangents like he usually does. The whole day gave me the vibe of a festival or the excitement associated with anticipating Northwestern's Dillo Day.

Last day of class tomorrow, finals next week! Maybe an internship confirmed too!

Earthquake

The earthquake hit Sichuan province last Monday, May 12. It hit near the city of Wenchuan between Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou, where I traveled last semester. I didn't feel anything in Nanjing; a few people claimed they did. Several of my friends received texts forewarning them. News reports said people were evacuated from buildings in Beijing and Shanghai, I don't know what that was about.









Chinese people are really pulling together in the relief effort. I've been inundated with facebook messages, got a text message asking me to donate, and people are collecting clothes to donate. The Chinese government announced a three day period of morning beginning Monday. Businesses like bars and movie theaters were instructed to close. At 2:28 p.m, a siren sounded for three minutes marking the exact time the earthquake struck a week ago. I went to a candlelight vigil on Monday. The pictures are from near the end, when I finally figured out the nighttime settings on my camera.

Shanghai Weekend

On Friday morning, I went to Shanghai. I had two job interviews that afternoon, so I wore my suit from about 1 p.m. onward. Both went well, I think. I'll probably know whether I have a job offer in about 2 weeks.

After the last interview ended at about 6 p.m., I met up with Trenton, Yayoi, and Marcus at their hostel. I was staying at Nick and James' apartment, two Shanghai residents who I know through a friend last quarter. I didn't go back, so I was, once again, still wearing my suit. Tommy, Yuki, Ryan, and Hannah got in to town a few hours later and we all went out to dinner together, Nick accompanying.

Afterwards, we followed Nick to this "CD release party" for a friend's band, although I didn't see any CD's around. We watched the two opening acts, the second being Angry Jerks, a punk band from Nanjing. I checked my suitcoat and moshed for a while, which was both tiring and refreshing since I hadn't done it in a while. The main event, Nick's friend's band, had technical difficulties that lasted a long time, so we left before they went on. We went to a club called Bon Bon, the same one I went to last time I was in Shanghai because the new group of people wanted to go. Same fake booze, didn't close until 4 a.m. Finally changed out of my suit in the morning, which is luckily undamaged. We went to City Diner for a late lunch, and had a hamburger. We went to a ticket vendor at Zhongshan Park, then relaxed in the park. Left on a 7 p.m. train, making it a whirlwind trip.

I relaxed until class started today, just sending more e-mails following up on jobs and my honors application.

Here's more pictures of Xinjiang






A supermarket and hotel at night in Kashgar













A traditional house in Kashgar's old town. The two seated women are 88 and 90 years old and are the last of four wives who were married to a man who has been long dead.














Sheep tied up in a row at the livestock market.

Xinjiang

My travelmates, Trenton and Kelli.












Last month, I spent 10 days in Xinjiang. On April 17, I left Nanjing and flew to Urumqi with Kelli to meet Trenton, who had flown out that morning. We spent one night there, then flew to Kashgar. After two days, we hired a driver and spent three days on the highway that runs through the Pamir Mountain Range to connect to Pakistan. Along the way, we spent one night sleeping in a Yurt next to Karakul Lake and another night in a Tashkurgan. We backtracked to Kashgar and after a few hours hopped a sleeper bus to Hotan. We spent two days and one night in Hotan than took an 18 hour bus that crossed the Taklamakan desert, which takes up a huge part of the province. The bus ended up back in Urumqi, where we bought hard sleeper tickets back to Nanjing. The train took 40 hours, traversing most of the country.

As my time is limited, I will mostly represent my journey through the pictures I took.

Urumqi



My mother had informed me the weather was volatile here, but we felt the full extent. When Trenton got here the previous morning it was sunny and 70 degrees. We arrived at night to rain and woke up to snow. Urumqi is a rather unexciting city, we spent most of our time ate the only expat hang out in town, drinking coffee and eating western food. That said, it was a relaxing starting and ending point for our trip. We did have an amazing Xinjiang specialty, Da Pan Ji (chicken, potatoes, peppers) for lunch on Day 2.

Kashgar

A bakery specializing in the Uighur Naan on one of the large streets in the minority dominated old city. Bread would be our main staple on our journey along the highway to Pakistan.











A bowl goat head at the night market across from the mosque. The three of us ate half a head, and it wasn't that bad.




















The livestock market, on the outskirts of town. We mostly saw sheep and cows with a few donkeys and goats too. Most people were chasing sheep around and tying them together by their necks with ropes tied to pickets in the ground.

Pamir Range (Karakul Lake and Tashkurgan)

This mountain is about 7500 meters tall, which isn't that much shorter than Everest. The reflection is in Karakul Lake, and the pictures all look like they are fake because it's so breathtaking. I was at 3800 meters and was feeling the altitude, which forced me to do everything really slowly.









The people renting us our yurt were giving us trouble about the food we were asking for. We ended up starting to walk around the lake and this Kyrg minority family offered to feed us for 10 kuai a head. Only the father, pictured here, knew Mandarin, and only a few words at that. The rice, veggies, and a couple bits of lamb meat were not that great, but it was well worth the experience of seeing how they live in this two room stone house.




The yurt we stayed in next to the lake. There was a wood stove that kept it warm. That went out at about midnight when all we had was about 30 blankets to keep us warm. They were so heavy they pinned us to the floor. Even so, I still woke up freezing.











Tashkurgan, the second to last city from the Pakistani border. The city has 50,000 residents, 30,000 of which are Tajik (remember, this is a really small city for China, Kashgar is 200,000). The generator at our hotel broke that night, so we subsisted on candles. We had some excellent Chinese food in this city, which we sought out because otherwise we had only been eating bread and lamb meat.






The "Ancient Stone City," basically abandoned ruins marked by a sign. I believe it's an old outpost. It's the highest vantage point in town from which I took the above picture. I was able to climb around on it freely. Definitely the highlight of Tashkurgan

Hotan

Hotan was a dusty city on the edge of the Taklamakan desert. The city of 100,000 had a very Chinese feel in most places and may well have been half-Chinese, half-minorities. Known for their jade, we spent most of our time jade shopping.