D - Questions on Contentment

I fear for anyone continuing to read this blog for insights into China. With any luck, you will still find some but more and more our journey here is turning introspective. Our trip has been a great opportunity to learn about a foreign culture and people, but I never realized that being here would ultimately turn our thoughts inward. When you are in your home country, virtually everyone you speak with is a mirror. Since you share common cultural values it is easy not to question the assumptions that are being made in the everyday. In a foreign land however, those assumptions fall idle. You must confront your most basic precepts.

In the first post of this blog, I discussed my mild dissatisfaction with my work life prior to China. As I indicated then, it was easy for me to question the validity of my occupation. In America, an upper middle class person such as myself has the world open to them. I could get rich working at a large investment bank in New York. I could go back to school and become a history professor. I could get my MBA and command prestige. Maybe I could run for political office. There are so many choices it's a little overwhelming. But what if I didn't have so many choices? How would that change my perspective or life? If I was less than thrilled with what by all accounts was an excellent job, how would I feel stripped of opportunity and confined to one path?

In China (and everywhere except the middle crust and above in Western countries), people don't have a lot of choice. Even in the "new" China, if high school students don't get the requisite score on the China College Entrance Exam, they are relegated to factory work or service jobs for the rest of their lives.

As an example, there is a Chinese couple that owns a food stand just outside the Foreign Teacher Building here at DMU. Inside the food stand, they have a couple of fryers and a cutting board. Their stand is strategically located on the path between the DMU West Campus and the DMU East Campus, so they see quite a bit of foot traffic. Sometimes they both man their booth, sometimes it's just the husband, and others it's just the wife. She wears a red shirt that seems intended to suggest a fast food motif and tops it off with a red cap that I've never seen her doff. During the warmer months, he wore these tank top muscle shirts - and he could pull them off! He was pretty built although I don't think it was because of his gym membership. He probably has a manual labor job somewhere else. The thing I will always remember about him is the ever present smile on his face. He never seemed stressed or cross, even when students would throng around the booth at lunch time.

They offer two dishes. One is the Jian Bing Guo Zi, which they make by pouring batter on a flat fryer. Next they break an egg onto the batter, spread it around and then flip the pancake. Into the pancake they place green onions, two crispy flour shells, and a Chinese hot dog split in two. They fold this up into a pocket and voila. Dish number two is known as "han ba", aka the chicken hamburger. They put a fried chicken patty in a sesame roll with some lettuce and mayonnaise. Both of them are surprisingly good and have become regular staples in our diet. The price has something to do with it - the Jian Bing Guo Zi is 2 yuan and Han ba is 3 yuan. In China you can easily eat on a dollar a day if you really want to.

So why spend all that time describing two people that would be identified as having no significance in the world? Who will remember them for serving up fried chicken patties? Because they are two of the finest people I have ever met. I say that knowing them in the most cursory fashion. Our conversations in Chinese are basic to say the least. But when I see them work in that stand, day after day, I can see real contentment. There is no sense of resenting the work that they do. We've all seen it in a fast food place. The sullen eyes of the bored cashier who seems like they would rather be in the iron maiden than taking your order. And how many of us have thought in the back of our minds while gathering up our double cheeseburgers - "you know, I'd be miserable too if I were stuck behind that counter".

We're not breaking any new ground here, are we? Everyone knows that your job can't be your life and sometimes you have to grin and bear it. What's paradoxical about life is that you can know something in your mind but until you feel it and experience it for yourself it's not real. I think that's what China is doing for me. I have plenty of time to think here and at the same time I'm confronted by people who not only get by with less money but are incredibly contented doing so. That has a way of getting inside you.

I want to close this entry with a quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a famous Russian author who survived the Soviet gulag and became a prominent writer and philosopher. He made many enemies criticizing both capitalism and communism.

"If humanism were right in declaring that man is born to be happy, he would not be born to die. Since his body is doomed to die, his task on earth evidently must be of a more spiritual nature. It cannot unrestrained enjoyment of everyday life. It cannot be the search for the best ways to obtain material goods and then cheerfully get the most out of them. It has to be the fulfillment of a permanent, earnest duty so that one's life journey may become an experience of moral growth, so that one may leave life a better human being than one started it. It is imperative to review the table of widespread human values. Its present incorrectness is astounding. It is not possible that assessment of the President's performance be reduced to the question of how much money one makes or of unlimited availability of gasoline. Only voluntary, inspired self-restraint can raise man above the world stream of materialism." - from "A World Split Apart", 1978

D - Odds and Ends

The post rate on our blog has slowed a bit, as I'm sure regular readers have noticed. I haven't been feeling that well this week and there's been less to report. Nonetheless, there are a few odds and ends to report.

-Last Saturday we went out with a bunch of people to an Indian Restaurant in the Zhongshan Hotel on Jiefang Lu. The Hindu holiday of Diwali (I think it's their New Year) was Saturday and the one Indian foreign teacher suggested an outing. He is here for 3 months as part of an exchange program between his university, Kennesaw State College (Atlanta, GA area) and DMU. He's teaching management courses. Apparently DMU and KS have been doing this for a number of years. It sounds like a neat program and 3 months is long enough to get your feet wet without going mad. The food at the restaurant was decent. For 70 RMB each, we had access to an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet. It was pretty standard Indian fare featuring various curries, plenty of naan, and strangely - french fries. I was disappointed there was no Chicken Tikka Masala but you take what you can get in China!

-My primary lesson for my classes this week was to teach them English words for discussing music. The principal focus of the class was explaining musical genres - such as rock, country, punk, ska, r&b, hip-hop/rap, folk, electronica, etc. The routine was for me to play 3 songs from a particular genre. For example, to illustrate HipHop/Rap I played some Black Eyed Peas, Dr. Dre, and Eminem. Then I would call on a student after each song ask them to say if they liked it or not and to compare it to their liking for other musical genres. Needless to say they were thrilled to get away from my standard English classes. I think only 1 or 2 students were sleeping! Interestingly, a lot of them liked country. But by far their biggest interest is in the mainstream Pop. They love the Backstreet Boys of all people. I tried to explain that Americans would laugh at 21 year Chinese men who love the Backstreet Boys, but I felt guilty making them feel bad. It's like telling your 5 year old that you're not actually the smartest person in the world.

-I've been feeling a strong desire to check out the international church here in Dalian. Chinese people of course can't openly attend services, but the PRC doesn't mind if the foreigners do their Jesus thing. We are told by a Canadian couple that there are house churches. 500 people will meet in tiny sweltering churches for 3 hours on Sundays. Ironically the international church is shepherded by a Korean pastor. Those who know us well are aware that our last church in New Jersey was predominantly Korean. The problem is that the church is a long way out in downtown from where we are. That shouldn't be an obstacle but when it involves riding a packed Chinese bus for 45 minutes it makes you hesitate. I think C and I are going to make the trip soon though. Maybe not this weekend though because I feel like I've been run over by a rickshaw.

D - Truth and Freedom

I can't claim credit for one of the most interesting observations I've heard while being in China. C has remarked on several occasions that Americans may have a mistaken impression about freedom. We believe that every person in the world is longing for American-style freedom. They may whisper about their desire in dark corners to avoid the secret police, but it exists. To an extent, I agree with this common American belief. The desire to be free is a part of human nature. Most of us just want to be left alone to live our lives how we see fit.

It may surprise many in the West however to learn that ordinary Chinese people don't share this belief, and it's not simply a matter of being afraid of their government. People here are incredibly accepting of their lot in life. While Americans commonly rage against the machine - by protesting on the National Mall or even just cursing Uncle Sam around the kitchen table, the Chinese do not. In class this week, we were practicing words and phrases for expressing opinions - e.g. "I'm for it" / "I'm against it" / "I support this" / "I'm opposed to this". First, I taught the students the words and gave examples. Next, I would write an issue on the board and they would have to write down if they were for it, against it, or didn't care - and why. For example, I wrote things like "smoking in public places", "taxes on beer and liquor", "women in the military" - relatively benign issues I thought they could easily have an opinion on. It's not like I asked them if Taiwan should be an independent state (which will get you a lynch mob and deportation in China).

Well, you would have thought I had three heads. "You want us to express an opinion? What?! But we don't know how to do that!" Before asking individual students about their opinions, I would try to help them develop their democratic impulses by asking the "For"s to raise their hands and the "Against"s to raise their hands. You know, see where public opinion lay. Both times I would get a smattering of hands - but not anywhere near the total number of students in the class. "Do you understand what I am saying?" "Yes we do." "Then why aren't you raising your hands?" The concept of expressing your opinion actively was so foreign to them. They almost seemed embarrassed to have one. I'm sure the language barrier has something to do with it but I don't believe it can account for the reluctance they showed. After repeatedly haranguing them about giving me their opinions the general consensus was that smoking in public should be illegal, there should be no tax on beer, and women should serve in the military along with men. Another interesting aspect of the discussion was that they were much more loathe to talk about women in the military - presumably because it's the only thing the government has a clear opinion on (they are pro-equality, woot!).

Anyway, at the end of one of my For & Against classes, I asked them if they liked the War on Iraq. Of course unanimously, they were against it. They asked my opinion and I talked about my dismay with how things have been done and how they are going.

"Do you think it is strange I disagree with my government over the war?". "Not at all!" they said - you are right, it is a bad thing. "But my government says we should continue to fight!" "It doesn't matter, you are right." So I asked if anyone in the room ever disagreed with the Chinese government. Dead silence. Finally I asked one of the students that speaks English well if he ever disagreed with his leaders - he need not tell me where his areas of disagreement were - just that he did. He indicated there were some things so I inquired why he wasn't trying to change the government's policy. "There is no point - I have no ability to change things". And that sums up our interactions in a nutshell. The people here are not idiots. They have opinions about their government, mostly positive but certainly they are aware of failures and poor policies. But Chinese culture has an incredibly strong acceptance of things as they are. They don't get bent out of shape like Americans do. The idea of the Republicans getting thrown out of power this November would blow them away.

On the other hand, people here do want to know the truth. Last week we went to a Korean restaurant with S (student volunteer/best Chinese friend). After dinner we were walking home and she told us a story about one of her friends. This friend gave her a video of the Tian'anmen Square confrontation in 1989 and told her to watch it behind closed doors. She was struck that students could get so angry with their government. How could it be that they could try and fight the government? Her explanation? Someone put them up to it. It wasn't an independent movement. Maybe Taiwanese or Tibetan spies forced them to rebel. The concept of spontaneous revolt was untenable - the idea that Chinese people would break out of their cultural deference seemed impossible. At the same time, I understand. You grow up your whole life being fed the stories of the greatness of your government. It's infallible and always has the best interests of the Chinese people at heart. Yet despite the conflict between her education and the facts of 1989, no amount of education could steal her desire for truth.

S comes and tutors us in Chinese once a week and we return the favor and help her with her English compositions. I decided to take a risk and offer to print off the independent account of the Tian'anmen Square event from Wikipedia (which even has a Chinese language version). She very much wanted the account. C was reluctant given how dangerous this was for us - we could get fired from our university and deported or worse for supplying her with this information. She promised not to tell anyone, just to read it privately.

It's an interesting dynamic between truth and freedom. Maybe we have it a little backwards. Perhaps the desire for freedom does lie in every human heart - as is oft spoken about America's efforts to democratize the world. But I am beginning to believe though that the stronger power is truth. As the light of truth pierces the darkness and touches the human mind, change can and will come to China.

They will know the truth and the truth will set them free.

C - a dinner to remember

Since we first met the student that was assigned to help D and I learn how to function in Dalian, she's mentioned the possibility of us having dinner with her parents at their home. (Her parents live in Dalian, so unlike many of her classmates, our friend doesn't have to undertake a multiple-day train ride to get to school in the fall.) Apparently this past weekend was convenient for all parties involved, so plans were made for us to be picked up at our apartment and driven to her parent's apartment by her father. I was terribly nervous about this meeting, and since D and I seemed to be both coming down with a cold, I thought we could put it off awhile longer. No such luck, though -- D confirmed the plans when he saw Sylvia the day before for the banking fiasco.

The dinner ended up being held at a restaurant, since Sylvia's aunt, uncle, and cousin apparently also wanted to have a peek at the long-nosed white devils (hehe, kidding) that their niece was spending so much time with, and her parents' apartment wasn't large enough to hold eight people. Her parents chose a seafood restaurant, the kind where you pick your own food while it's still alive and kicking. We find it hard enough to choose dishes given our limited exposure to Chinese cuisine and usually prefer the natives to order for us, so imagine our difficulty overcoming both our lack of knowledge of what's good and what's bad AND our feeling that we were in some sort of aquarium or zoo instead of a restaurant.

We eventually selected some dishes and ultimately had a delicious dinner. Of course, the evening wouldn't be complete without a few social gaffes on my part. Upon learning that Sylvia's aunt was an economics professor, I insensitively asked "So do you think China's currency should be allowed to float on the open market?" But this is essentially asking her aunt whether she toes the party line or not, which of course she does. I've found that even if a Chinese individual isn't a party member, they're not comfortable showing disagreement with the CCP while in the presence of a foreigner.

Then I had the insatiable urge to pick some food out of my teeth, which is apparently the number-one no-no when it comes to Chinese table manners. Every website on Chinese manners that I've even seen clearly states that if one must use a toothpick, the mouth should be covered by the non-picking hand. Well, despite reading it a dozen times in the past few months, I forgot this rule, and even though I don't think anyone noticed, I still felt dumb.

One good thing that happened during the dinner was being called by our Chinese names. (D's is 长天，pronounced sort of like "chahng tee-en", and mine is 秋水, pronounced sort of like "chew shway"). Our names come from a line of a famous chinese poem and are very romantic, because the poem says that in the fall, the water and sky combine to form one color. (秋水共长天一色). But our names don't get a lot of use, so it was fun to see them serving their purpose.

And here is a photo of the happy dining party:



Sylvia is on D's left, her parents are next to me, and her aunt and uncle are to their right.

D - Banking in the Mirror Universe

Some of the poor souls that know us are aware of our affection for Star Trek in its various forms. Before you reach for the "Close" button, I promise the Trek-related portion of this post will be over shortly, so bear with me. Some episodes of Star Trek feature a concept known as the "Mirror Universe". The Mirror Universe contains the same characters, ships, places, and concepts as the regular universe where the heroes dwell - except that everything and everyone in the Mirror Universe is twisted. For example, rather than Earth being part of a peace-loving interstellar Federation, in the mirror universe, bloodthirsty humans seek to destroy and enslave other planets. And as the following pictures of Spock show, people in the Mirror Universe have more facial hair.

Normal Spock

Mirror Spock

Okay, okay - I'm getting there! You're asking "what does this pointless Star Trek trivia have to do with China?" Well, my experience at the Bank of China on Friday of this week was a bit like banking in the mirror universe. Everything looks and sounds the same. The BoC features 5 tellers. They have savings accounts, they have checking accounts, they advertise Certificates of Deposit. China has ubiquitous ATMs dotting the landscape of every town and city. Oh yes, it looks quite normal but in fact evil is lurking just beneath the surface.

First, a little background before I get to the meat of my suffering. C and I did not have to open our Bank of China accounts. We simply showed up to the Foreign Affairs Officer's room at the University one day and she handed us our ATM cards, PIN numbers, and bank books. On the appointed day our salary was automatically deposited in the bank account. We used the ATM and our PIN worked and we got money. It couldn't have been easier. Life was good.

Then one dark day I was in a bit of a hurry. My friends and family know that I am a bit absent-minded. I am actually quite thorough with most things but if my mind gets occupied or I am worried about being late somewhere, all my usual exacting detail goes out the window. Yes, I lost my ATM card like an idiot. I've been banking in the US for 9 years and I have NEVER lost my ATM card. But because we're in China and banking in the mirror universe, I of course managed to do so here. I take full responsibility - it's not the Bank of China's fault that I was careless.

So I called the Foreign Affairs Officer and explained the situation, confident that she would grease the wheels of financial service as she had before. She indicated that all I needed to do was to take two copies of my passport to the bank on campus and they would take care of it. Ah good - that sounds easy. I asked our student volunteer Sylvia to go with me since my finance Chinese is sorely lacking. Upon our arrival she explained the situation to the teller who indicated the following stipulations.

1) All lost card requests must be submitted prior to 3:30 PM
2) The lost card request must be written out in Chinese
3) The lost card request must be written by the person who wants the new card.
At the time, it was 4pm so we couldn't submit the request that day. The following day Sylvia and I returned, this time at 2pm. We gave the teller my passport copies. The copies were not full size -- they were slightly smaller than my actual passport. She had to call someone to confirm they were usable, and thankfully they were. Next, she gave us two forms to fill out and sternly instructed Sylvia that I MUST write it myself or it could not be accepted. We took several copies of the form so Sylvia could fill one out and I could do my best to emulate her writing. The first few parts of the form weren't too bad but eventually some VERY complex characters were required and I made a mistake. Well, it turns out that you can't scratch anything out on the form. If you make even the smallest error, you MUST fill out a new form - they cannot accept a damaged one. Sylvia realized that if we kept going at our snail's pace we would never finish by 3:30pm. Our new strategy was for her to fill the form out with her left hand. It would look different from her normal handwriting and crude enough to pass for a foreigner that had no idea what he was writing.

The process went like this - we waited for a customer to be served by our particular teller, then Sylvia would fill the form out with her left hand, while I would pretend to be writing on a separate sheet of paper. We finished those two forms...then were handed another 3 to fill out! We were essentially filling out the same information over and over, just in different forms. One was the "I lost my card" form, another was the "Please give me a new one" form, and yet another was the "Authorize an investigation of the loss of the card" form. They were endless. Oh -- and the forms must be filled out with black ink. We did one form in blue and it was rejected. In another instance, the forms had carbon copies attached but Sylvia's left-hand Chinese didn't press all the way through to the last sheet - we had to do it again.

Finally we finished all the forms after an hour and 15 minutes...just inside the 3:30 deadline. The teller asked Sylvia repeatedly if I had filled out the forms. "Of course!" she answered - which was partially true. I did write the account numbers, my english name, and the date. I am so glad they didn't ask me...I am the worst liar.

Some of you may read that and think it's not that surprising. We've all been in situations with large bureaucracies and dealt with paper pushers and silly rules that don't make sense. The bank teller said I had to fill the form because some Chinese person had a stolen a foreigner's money by filling out such a form and tricking them. I argued that I had to trust that Sylvia was writing the correct things anyway - it was a useless precaution. I think what is instructive about this event is the comparison of Chinese business and American business. I can remember when I worked in New York at a large investment bank. EVERYTHING is about efficiency. Don't have 6 forms when 1 will do. Make it easier for the customer and faster for the company. Make it require fewer people. Who knows, maybe it's just as bad to get a new ATM card in the US - not sure since it hasn't happened to me. And yes, US corporations do take security seriously at the same time they put things online and streamline how routine tasks like new ATM cards are handled. But the mentality here is totally different. Processes in China are designed to incorporate more people rather than fewer.

It's funny, on occasion the extra people required for every task in China are good for the customer. Sometimes you get better service because there are so many people looking out for you. Most of the time though, it's inefficiency for inefficiency's sake. C and I both laugh at the grocery stores here -- EVERY single aisle has an employee in it, ostensibly to help you find what you need in that aisle, but more likely the purpose is to give the people jobs. Perhaps they'll be bored to tears because they get to talk to only one customer a day, but at least they won't be staring down tanks or complaining they can't read the news everyone else in the world gets to read.

D - Being There

When you move to a new country, you feel like you're living on Mars for awhile. Everything is unique and different. The smallest comment from a native can generate a laugh or an insightful comment into the subtle differences separating your two countries. Eventually though, you settle in. You develop a routine. The place isn't home, but you carve out a niche and find some local comforts, or maybe spend a little too much money buying some from your homeland. You never forget that you're in a foreign place, but you adjust.

I think that's the point that C and I have hit this week. Our families know that we've been struggling a bit with teaching - and no matter where you are or what you're doing, your job is a big part of your life. If it's a struggle then the whole of your existence can be trying at times. The lesson here is pretty straightforward. No matter where you go and no matter what you do, you've got to find the something more that makes life worthwhile. For us, that's our faith and our family and a belief that every experience in life has a purpose. We're not in China just because it's a great place to be a tourist and I can assure it's not because we love teaching English to unmotivated Chinese university students. Just like everything else, it's preparing us for some future step in life.

It's weeks like this where I dwell on these things, primarily because I am pretty frustrated with teaching. You'll find a number of different attitudes from the other English teachers. Some of them don't care much at all. They do what they have to get by and little more. Others like teaching and spend all class long playing games but I am not convinced they ever teach the students anything. Finally, the last set actually care to impart knowledge to the students but are frustrated to no end by the peculiarities of trying to teach English here. I won't lie - I have been in each category. Sometimes in the same day my attitude will shift from to the other.

Here's why teaching here can be difficult-
1) Skill level varies tremendously between students. The freshmen I have are closer in ability than the juniors but it's still a wide range.
2) The students lack a tremendous amount of vocabulary. Our class is Oral English I. The book we use is primarily to get students to speak and to practice pronunciation. And that's all well good but it's hard to have even a basic conversation if you don't know certain words. But I don't have a vocabulary book to use to teach them with even if I could incorporate it.
3) Students almost NEVER raise their hand. At first I didn't mind calling on people but it's really frustrating after awhile when you ask really easy yes or no questions and not a single person will bother. You have to call on them every time.
4) You can plan a very detailed lesson and have it fail. Teaching requires a lot of effort. You have to plan and then present in class. Then in class you have to adjust on the fly to how students are responding. Are they learning? Is it interesting? Do I need to move to something else if they don't like this, or do I force them to do it?

My mother is a teacher and I know she is a good one. Being here has given me even more respect for her than I had before. And she teaches "at-risk" youth, which makes teaching ESL look like a day at the beach. Teaching is not easy! I am now amazed at the good teachers and professors I had in school and in college. And now I understand why the bad ones were bad. When you work a 9-5, you can have a good hour at work and produce something that made the whole 8 hours worthwhile. As a teacher, you prepare beforehand, then you have to present the preparation well. Finally, you have to give good out of class assignments and deal with grading them. If you fail at any step along the way, they don't learn - and to top it off, you may feel awkward in class knowing that the lesson is a partial failure. Teaching is the curse of caring. I used curse there primarily for the alliteration - but it often feels like those who long to do good are fighting an uphill battle.

My hometown newspaper has a regular column called "The Vent" where people call in to express their frustration about some local (usually insignificant) issue. I guess this is my Vent entry! I don't think they will publish it in the China Daily though.

C - on absorbing (culture) shock

Sometimes I feel that China is a rubik's cube that I'm ever so slowly putting in order. Week by week, I notice that the signs and billboards are revealing more and more bits of their meaning and that conversations are becoming less and less unintelligible to me. It's a good feeling.

It's exhilarating to feel the blinders coming off, the clouds clearing up, the little mysteries being solved. Every little thing I figure out fuels my motivation to keep studying, keep practicing, keep trying. But then China gets in the way. Just when I start to feel even moderately adjusted, confident, and content, China finds some new way to offend, annoy, horrify, or confound me. And then I don't want to talk to ANY Chinese people, and if I don't want to do that, why would I study the language?

But the point of this entry is not to rant about Chinese culture. I do that vicariously through talktalkchina.com. The thought that's been brewing in my head all day is amazement at the people I know whose parents (or they themselves as children) emigrated from China or Korea. I knew in my mind that these cultures were different from that of the United States, but living here in China has caused me to grasp more fully the enormity of the fundamental incompatibility that exists between East and West.

At our old church in New Jersey (www.emetro.org), we met and became friends with a good amount of first-generation Americans. These people were proud of their Asian heritage and (rightfully) considered it an important part of their identity, but I didn't feel an enormous gulf separating us like the one that exists between me and the Chinese people here in China. Sometimes I feel like I have absolutely nothing in common with the people here.

Obviously my friends' parents felt they weren't completely incompatible with life in the US if they moved their family there, but I'm amazed at the open-mindedness both they and their children seem to possess in order to be able to function in both cultures. So, P, J, A/Y, S/P, S, K, Y, and anyone else I might have failed to think of, if you're reading this, please know that I think you guys are amazing. Right now I need to take a lesson from your great example!

D - Shenyang Concluded

We have returned from Xi'an and I'm still writing about Shenyang. When you have a lot to work on and a lot to say it's easy to get behind. I finally decided to use the Google Picasa Photo Albums so now we can just upload all our pictures and you can view them at your leisure. The general link to all our photos will be this and the Shenyang specific link is here.

I want to close out Shenyang with a video. It's the usual handheld herky-jerky-likely-to-make-you-ill variety, but it will give you a sense of the energy that a Chinese city can have. The energy is why many people come to China. Even in New York City, it's hard to find the same kind of excitement and adrenaline. The street in Shenyang featured hundreds of people milling about - shopping, talking, laughing, eating. Some western cities have one-off events that feature this level of atmosphere but in China it happens everyday. If you hate crowds, it can be maddening but if you let go of your personal space for a few minutes it can be truly exhilarating. The night markets in China are quite a sight. The peddlers have DVDs, socks, bras, candy, cell phones, terra cotta soldiers, and trinkets out the wazoo.

Without further ado, the video.

D - On the road again

Well, now we're headed to Xi'an with our Danish friends. I haven't even finished uploading the entries about Shenyang...but what can you do. We will be back next Thursday evening with another boatload of pictures. With our additional classes this last week time was at a premium, but fear not loyal readers, we will continue posting for your vicarious China enjoyment.

Until then
再见