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!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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.
Monday, May 12, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
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.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Back from Xinjiang
My apologies for not leaving a note about my leaving for Xinjiang province for 10 days. Midterms had me really swamped, and I left immediately afterwards on Thursday. I have a few hundred pictures to sort through and a couple essays to finish tomorrow, but I will prepare an epic post to match my epic vacation.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Beijing Weekend
Hopped an overnight soft sleeper to Beijing, arriving Friday morning 6:45. I was pseudo-traveling with three girls from Nanjing--Shirlene, Lisa, and Bethany. They took a different train there and stayed in a different hotel. Also from Nanjing, Alex's girlfriend, Zheng Yu, flew to Beijing, but stayed in my same hotel. We would all travel back together on the same train.
Beijing University has this enormous lake with a 10+ story pagoda on one side. Totally blows Nanjing University Campus out of the water.
I went to visit my friend Alex from CIEE Nanjing last semester whose birthday it was on Thursday. I stayed in this large hotel/dorm complex where most foreigners at Beijing University are housed. Forgot my passport, so spent my whole morning (like 3 hours) finding a fax machine, the fax being too unclear, and then having my roommate scan and e-mail it to me. It was well worth the trouble and the 260 kuai to stay in such a convenient and well-furnished location. I've had some very bad experiences with Beijing hostels in the past.
Had lunch in the nearby Korean area, Wudaokou. We ate Korean food, for which my love is increasingly growing. I would eat again on Sunday at a Korean restaurant in this area. Despite Nanjings plethora of Korean restaurants, none stood up to the two I ate at over the weekend.
After lunch, we went back to campus and had a mini-campus tour. The weather was beautiful because they had recently launched a weather rocket, which made it rain, and cleared away the pollution for a while. The campus was also amazing, replete with this huge lake and pagoda, lots of traditional architecture, and the library where Mao Zedong began developing his ideology.
Alex, a bunch of his friends, and I went out to a Thai restaurant for this guys birthday. It was a huge meal and included plenty of seafood. Then, we went to smoke a hookah at a bar in Houhai, a bar district that encompasses this lake, meaning there were hundreds of bars. Sat outside, had a beer, pretty low key night.
The next day, got my train back finally figured out, thanks to the three other girls in town. Every ticket vendor was saying there weren't any tickets for Sunday night arriving Monday morning. This was possible since it was a holiday weekend. Everyone had Friday off for Qingming Jie, what I call the clean-off-your-family-tomb-and-burn fake-money festival. Turns out, they were just all too lazy to check and assumed there wouldn't be tickets. The three girls successfully purchased me a ticket at the train station (a 60 kuai cab ride away).
That afternoon, I ate lunch at a restaurant called Lush in Wudaokou, best known for being open 24/7. It serves western style food that you might find at like a Denny's, but slightly better than that of course. I ate with Alex, his gf, and Caroline, another girl from the previous semester in Nanjing.
That afternoon, Alex, Zhengyu and I went to the Summer Palace. Apparently, the summer retreat for the rulers is built around the largest man-made lake. Read the wikipedia page for more. Took a boat across the lake and saw the huge marble boat that was commissioned by Empress Dowager Cixi, who pretty much controlled China through her son in the 1800's. The funds were supposed to be used on the Chinese navy, and this among many misappropriations account for a lot of Chinese military weakness at the time.
Me, Alex, and Zhengyu in the gardens at the Summer Palace.
That night we went to dinner at a pizza place called Kro's Nest. The pizza definitely is on par with US pizza and is the best I've had in China. The large's were huge, think bigger than a big new yorker, probably like 36 inches. I nearly completed a half, the fullest I've been this semester to the point of discomfort. Well worth it though. We went across town to have a drink with Alex's friends who were at another Kro's Nest location by coincidence. From there went to the Sanlitun (pronounced Sanlituar in a Beijing accent) to this place called Blue Bar. They had a great patio on the roof, so we sat up there and had more drinks. Afterward, went to China Doll next door, but that wasn't much fun. Late night, returned home at approximately 5 a.m.
On Sunday, I checked out of the hotel and, after lunch, went shopping in Wudaokou. I bought a pair of shoes at Hotwind, which was long overdue. Cost like US$40, and were pretty sweet, plus I apparently get lifetime repairs on them(?).
To that point, I had had a pretty epic cuisine experience that weekend--I only at Chinese food once for breakfast the first morning. But our last dinner on Friday was the piece de resistance. We ate at a pretty upscale Japanese restaurant. I had a couple pieces of thick sashimi as well as a dozen pieces of four different sushi. Topped off to perfection with an Asahi.
Returned back on a 9:3o p.m. train that arrived around 7 a.m. Monday. Just enough time to cab home, take a shower and go to class.
Busy week, this Thursday I have a speech class midterm. I'll update with how it goes.
Beijing University has this enormous lake with a 10+ story pagoda on one side. Totally blows Nanjing University Campus out of the water.
I went to visit my friend Alex from CIEE Nanjing last semester whose birthday it was on Thursday. I stayed in this large hotel/dorm complex where most foreigners at Beijing University are housed. Forgot my passport, so spent my whole morning (like 3 hours) finding a fax machine, the fax being too unclear, and then having my roommate scan and e-mail it to me. It was well worth the trouble and the 260 kuai to stay in such a convenient and well-furnished location. I've had some very bad experiences with Beijing hostels in the past.
Had lunch in the nearby Korean area, Wudaokou. We ate Korean food, for which my love is increasingly growing. I would eat again on Sunday at a Korean restaurant in this area. Despite Nanjings plethora of Korean restaurants, none stood up to the two I ate at over the weekend.
After lunch, we went back to campus and had a mini-campus tour. The weather was beautiful because they had recently launched a weather rocket, which made it rain, and cleared away the pollution for a while. The campus was also amazing, replete with this huge lake and pagoda, lots of traditional architecture, and the library where Mao Zedong began developing his ideology.
Alex, a bunch of his friends, and I went out to a Thai restaurant for this guys birthday. It was a huge meal and included plenty of seafood. Then, we went to smoke a hookah at a bar in Houhai, a bar district that encompasses this lake, meaning there were hundreds of bars. Sat outside, had a beer, pretty low key night.
The next day, got my train back finally figured out, thanks to the three other girls in town. Every ticket vendor was saying there weren't any tickets for Sunday night arriving Monday morning. This was possible since it was a holiday weekend. Everyone had Friday off for Qingming Jie, what I call the clean-off-your-family-tomb-and-burn fake-money festival. Turns out, they were just all too lazy to check and assumed there wouldn't be tickets. The three girls successfully purchased me a ticket at the train station (a 60 kuai cab ride away).
That afternoon, I ate lunch at a restaurant called Lush in Wudaokou, best known for being open 24/7. It serves western style food that you might find at like a Denny's, but slightly better than that of course. I ate with Alex, his gf, and Caroline, another girl from the previous semester in Nanjing.
That afternoon, Alex, Zhengyu and I went to the Summer Palace. Apparently, the summer retreat for the rulers is built around the largest man-made lake. Read the wikipedia page for more. Took a boat across the lake and saw the huge marble boat that was commissioned by Empress Dowager Cixi, who pretty much controlled China through her son in the 1800's. The funds were supposed to be used on the Chinese navy, and this among many misappropriations account for a lot of Chinese military weakness at the time.
Me, Alex, and Zhengyu in the gardens at the Summer Palace.
That night we went to dinner at a pizza place called Kro's Nest. The pizza definitely is on par with US pizza and is the best I've had in China. The large's were huge, think bigger than a big new yorker, probably like 36 inches. I nearly completed a half, the fullest I've been this semester to the point of discomfort. Well worth it though. We went across town to have a drink with Alex's friends who were at another Kro's Nest location by coincidence. From there went to the Sanlitun (pronounced Sanlituar in a Beijing accent) to this place called Blue Bar. They had a great patio on the roof, so we sat up there and had more drinks. Afterward, went to China Doll next door, but that wasn't much fun. Late night, returned home at approximately 5 a.m.
On Sunday, I checked out of the hotel and, after lunch, went shopping in Wudaokou. I bought a pair of shoes at Hotwind, which was long overdue. Cost like US$40, and were pretty sweet, plus I apparently get lifetime repairs on them(?).
To that point, I had had a pretty epic cuisine experience that weekend--I only at Chinese food once for breakfast the first morning. But our last dinner on Friday was the piece de resistance. We ate at a pretty upscale Japanese restaurant. I had a couple pieces of thick sashimi as well as a dozen pieces of four different sushi. Topped off to perfection with an Asahi.
Returned back on a 9:3o p.m. train that arrived around 7 a.m. Monday. Just enough time to cab home, take a shower and go to class.
Busy week, this Thursday I have a speech class midterm. I'll update with how it goes.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Hangzhou
This Thursday after class, everyone got on a bus to go to Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. There's a saying in Chinese that there's heaven above and Hangzhou and Suzhou on earth. The city is known for it's gardens, parks, and the huge West Lake.
The bus ride took about 4 hours and was followed up by a meal at one of the 4 most reputable restaurants in town. We tried several Zhejiang dishes including a dish which was the equivalent to the western beggar's chicken, wrapped in leaves. Also had some fish in this odd sweet sauce that's supposedly a Zhejiang dish.
A guy in our program had friends in Hangzhou, so we checked out a couple bars with them that night. Seemed to have a pretty diverse selection, probably beats Nanjing slightly in terms of nightlife. I went from a Mexican restaurant/bar to a Reggae bar on to an intense dance club (there were lots of lasers) and back to the Reggae bar, where I proceeded to eat a pretty good hamburger.
Friday, we visited this huge park with this famous temple in it. I wish I could say something about the temple, but I didn't actually go inside, I just wandered around the park. I've seen so many temples, I'm almost templed-out, and there was plenty of other cool stuff to see. Particularly, all over were these Buddhas carved in the stones around the temple, sometimes high up in the rocks.
A cave entrance in the park with Buddhist carvings. We could pretty much go wherever so I walked through the interior and out another entrance.
I went through a cave, up these stairs in these rock formations an climbed the steps up this small mountain/hill thing. Hung out on top and wandered down the other side to see the temple complex rising through the trees on one side. It was very serene, I can only imagine how tranquil it would be before the city and tourism had grown.
Followed that up with a meal at Grandma's Kitchen, another of the 4 most reputable restaurants. I ate what probably was jellyfish as well as this fatty pork back, among many other things.
West Lake
Then we took a boat out to an island in West Lake. After that had some R&R, went to the Mexican restaurant for burritos, and out for the night.
Saturday morning, we went out to the tea growing mountains where we heard a lecture/sales pitch for this one type of tea. We all got to drink the tea, which was delicious, but not delicious enough for me to part with 150 to 300 kuai. Also learned about pouring tea, how it's grown/dried, different ways to steep it. The lecture was given by this spunky employee who's English was really good and at one point made a Brokeback Mountain joke. We then climbed an adjacent mountain with tiers of tea plants being grown.
Trenton tries and fails to take a picture with a tea picker. He later gave her 20 kuai, she promptly stopped working and walked off the mountain.
The program took us all to Papa John's (what?) for lunch and then we took the bus back home. That will round out my traveling until my 10 day break that starts on April 17, when I plan to go to Xinjiang.
The bus ride took about 4 hours and was followed up by a meal at one of the 4 most reputable restaurants in town. We tried several Zhejiang dishes including a dish which was the equivalent to the western beggar's chicken, wrapped in leaves. Also had some fish in this odd sweet sauce that's supposedly a Zhejiang dish.
A guy in our program had friends in Hangzhou, so we checked out a couple bars with them that night. Seemed to have a pretty diverse selection, probably beats Nanjing slightly in terms of nightlife. I went from a Mexican restaurant/bar to a Reggae bar on to an intense dance club (there were lots of lasers) and back to the Reggae bar, where I proceeded to eat a pretty good hamburger.
Friday, we visited this huge park with this famous temple in it. I wish I could say something about the temple, but I didn't actually go inside, I just wandered around the park. I've seen so many temples, I'm almost templed-out, and there was plenty of other cool stuff to see. Particularly, all over were these Buddhas carved in the stones around the temple, sometimes high up in the rocks.
A cave entrance in the park with Buddhist carvings. We could pretty much go wherever so I walked through the interior and out another entrance.
I went through a cave, up these stairs in these rock formations an climbed the steps up this small mountain/hill thing. Hung out on top and wandered down the other side to see the temple complex rising through the trees on one side. It was very serene, I can only imagine how tranquil it would be before the city and tourism had grown.
Followed that up with a meal at Grandma's Kitchen, another of the 4 most reputable restaurants. I ate what probably was jellyfish as well as this fatty pork back, among many other things.
West Lake
Then we took a boat out to an island in West Lake. After that had some R&R, went to the Mexican restaurant for burritos, and out for the night.
Saturday morning, we went out to the tea growing mountains where we heard a lecture/sales pitch for this one type of tea. We all got to drink the tea, which was delicious, but not delicious enough for me to part with 150 to 300 kuai. Also learned about pouring tea, how it's grown/dried, different ways to steep it. The lecture was given by this spunky employee who's English was really good and at one point made a Brokeback Mountain joke. We then climbed an adjacent mountain with tiers of tea plants being grown.
Trenton tries and fails to take a picture with a tea picker. He later gave her 20 kuai, she promptly stopped working and walked off the mountain.
The program took us all to Papa John's (what?) for lunch and then we took the bus back home. That will round out my traveling until my 10 day break that starts on April 17, when I plan to go to Xinjiang.
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