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

D - Shenyang Part 2 - The Exposition

After getting off the train Friday night, we found a very nice taxi driver to take us to our hotel. He was Shenyangese and claimed he could be an excellent tour guide. Sylvia judged him to be trustworthy so we invited him to pick us up at 8am the next morning to take us to the Exposition. The Expo was located about 15km east of Shenyang city and was surrounded by a very beautiful countryside. Only the faint tinge of brown on the horizon could detract from the views around the Expo grounds.

The Exposition began at the end of May and continues through the end of October 2006. So we were catching it at the end of its life. Despite this, overall it was a good experience. One thing you have to remember when judging it is that it's in China. In other words, even if the presentation is bad, it would be good, because we're learning how other people do things and what exhibits are interesting to their mind. Anyway, I would liken it almost more to a World's Fair than a Horticultural Exposition. There were two main categories of sites - Chinese Domestic Exhibitions and International Exhibitions. Each site had plants and gardens from the respective region or country, but there were also stores selling (supposedly) unique items from their culture. Strange how Malaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar all seemed to be selling the same stuff! Of course, my favorite display was put on by Turkey. They didn't actually setup a garden or sell any kitsch, but they grilled up some mean mutton kebabs - very tasty! Our only non-food purchase of the day was made at the India garden where C picked up some incense.

And here are the pictures...starting with the entrance to the exposition. We have many more than this but I still haven't found a photo gallery site I like yet.

Some interesting tree root art

Doing a "Miao" dance in front of a prototypical "Miao" home

One of the many China Regional Gardens. Who's the funny white guy?

Chinese sentiments can seem cheesy to a Westerner

Something you won't see at a US Exposition: A North Korean booth

The Lily Tower built for the exposition

Something else you won't see at a US Exposition: a ropes course??

The Dutch Garden sporting some Van Gogh

The American garden seeks to educate about great American leaders like Washinglon and Einstin.


Sylvia and Cassie hanging out in front of the Italian garden

A rose is a rose

D - Shenyang Part 1 - The Train

Well we have returned successfully from our first intra-China travel experience. It began Friday afternoon when we met our student volunteer Sylvia and her roommate Cassie at the closest bus stop. We took the 502 downtown and got off near the train station, which was the haven of madness we expected. Not only was it packed to the brim with everyday Chinese travellers, but there were hundreds of soldiers everywhere, apparently headed off from Dalian to fill the train station of another city. We were about an hour early for the train so we hung out in the waiting area. There were probably a 1000 people milling about where we were and we felt like every single one of them was staring at us. People would be minding their own business and then make a sudden veer our way. They would inquire in Chinese with our friends as to where we were from and what we were doing. Sylvia explained that many people who travel by train are farmers who may have never seen a foreigner before - and I believe it. The tickets for our friends to Shenyang were 15 RMB - about $1.90! China's train system make it possible for even the poorest to get transportation.

Right before we headed to get on the train at 3:30, I decided to hit the WC. Now the bathroom in any public place like the train station is never nice, but this was a whole new level of unniceness. Actually, the bathroom itself was no worse than your average interstate rest stop, but the air was literally like breathing pure tobacco smoke. You can't smoke in the train station central area (and it's actually enforced), but I know where they go to get their fix! Ugh. Finally, we got on the train. Sadly, we don't have any pictures of the station or the train. From the outside, it was a pale green and looked every bit to be from a bygone communist era. I should add that we took the 2209 train, which is the slowest and least comfortable train. From what I read, there are some very nice trains here but our students of course chose the most economic option.

There are four classes of seats on most Chinese trains: hard seats, soft seats, hard sleeper, and soft sleeper - if you're curious on the distinctions, click here. The picture of the hard seats (our class) is relatively close to our experience with a few exceptions. For example, MANY people in China will stand in the hard seat compartments for incredibly long journeys. Having an aisle seat isn't as advantageous when you have people roaming up and down hoping to find a spare seat, or maybe just leaning on your seat. I was talking to a student today and he told me that to get from his home in central China to Dalian, he would STAND for 22 hours. Another girl got to sit on her train journey to Dalian, but it took 50 hours from her home in Gansu province.

Thankfully we didn't need the restroom on the train so I can't report any findings there. Our dinner consisted of ramen noodles brought by our friends. You can get hot water on the train to make that sort of ready-to-eat dish. The journey itself was okay - there were probably 6 or 7 stops of 3-10 minutes on the way to Shenyang. My bottom was certainly ready to get off though at the 6 hour and 15 minute mark when we arrived at the Shenyang North train station.

D - Holy Shenyang Batman!

Well, this entry will be the last for a few days. We're one week away from our trip to Xi'an and somehow we managed to get another trip together. Our student volunteer was going to the International Horticultural Exposition in Shenyang, China this weekend with her roommate and we asked her if we could tag along. Shenyang is a heavily industrial city about 6 hours north of Dalian by train. The pronunciation sounds like "Shunyahng" according to the Chinese pinyin phonetic system. It's the capital of Liaoning province. Once known as Mukden, it was a hub of industry setup by the Japanese during their occupation of Manchuria during the second Sino-Japanese War. Throughout the 60s and 70s it was among the most successful industrial cities in China, but as market reforms took place in the 80s and 90s it fell behind some of the other cities. It's supposed to be rather dirty and polluted so I suspect this exposition is an effort to try and rebuild some of its reputation.



Ironically, my father has actually been to Shenyang. He gave a speech that was broadcast on state TV in the mid 90s. He gives an interesting description of his visit there. His company was investing about $50,000 in a local Chinese firm, which is pretty small. The hosts of his visit however went all out with a huge banquet and celebration at this magnificent occasion of Sino-American partnership!

The trip will see a number of firsts for me (C is far more Chinaperienced with her study abroad trip so this is old hat for her).

First stay at a Chinese hotel
First train trip in China
First visit to Shenyang
First trip with Chinese friends

One of the firsts I hope to avoid is - "First time using a squat toilet while going around a curve on a Chinese train"!

Some maps from the exposition web site are below...in English.

C - worth a thousand characters

Before we take off for the weekend, here are some pictures from our latest adventures:

At Noah's For Your Ark bar, which D alluded to in his previous post, we came across this very special menu:

The picture isn't the greatest, but if you click on the photo and view it full-sized, you can clearly view the many humorous offerings, not the least of which is "peach pai" ("pai" would be pronounced "pie" in the Chinese phonetic system.) What really takes the cake (or pai, perhaps) for me, though, is #9 -- BBQ wikipedia. I knew that the Chinese government didn't like the thing, but jeez! This is a bit cruel!
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China is corrupting my value system. Two American businesses I've consciously objected to buying from for years, KFC and Wal-mart, are now something I treasure and look forward to patronizing! I realized the extent of my depravity the other day while throwing KFC take-out containers into a plastic bag from Wal-mart we're using for garbage:

Sad.

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I've been wanting a Chinese scroll painting for some time, so our student volunteer, Sylvia, took us to a mall downtown last Friday. I was able to find a beautiful painting and a very pretty fan. Each item cost 50 yuan, or just over 6 USD. I am very pleased with both:





The photos don't give a very good sense of scale, so I'll guess that the painting is 10" x 30", and the fan is probably just over a foot wide.
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This next photo is of a bizarre food made from potato that is apparently exclusive to Dalian. It's pretty tasty. I forget the name of it, but here you can see me chopping up what was left over after Sylvia made it for us the night before:


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And finally, a delightful photo I took just now of my dearest darling D:



He was feeling pretty bad this evening after finding out that he hugely offended our student volunteer by offering to pay for the hotel we booked for our trip to Shenyang, and then I had to ask him for computer help afterwards, which always puts him in a rather, how shall we say, brusque mood, so he wasn't exactly inclined to take a silly picture. I REALLY thought that the cookies he was eating looked like cigars, though, and after some pleading on my part he agreed to put his feet up on his desk and "smoke". And that is why I love him.

D - Socializing with Chinese characteristics

Well, this has been an easy week for me. Currently I have 4 sections of students. 2 of those sections only have 1 class this week (8-9:30 Friday and 10-11:30 Friday), and the other 2 sections have shipped off to the island of Hainan for some hands on ship training. While my charges are enjoying the cramped splendor of a Chinese freighter, this means I have Monday through Thursday totally off. Really it's just the calm before the storm. Next week the freshmen, who have been marching around the first 5 weeks of school for required military training, will begin their class for the semester. The impact for us is that our measly 8-9 hours a week of teaching will rise to 12, 14, and finally 16 during certain weeks. It won't be too bad though because now we have a few lesson plans stored up.

So what have we been up to the last few days? Well last week we were conferring with our Danish friends about our trip to Xi'an when one of the student volunteers stopped by. She wanted to formalize the group of students who help the foreign teachers and students into a "Student Union" (Club) and she needed a good name. We bandied about several ideas but eventually she settled on my suggestion - "Foreign Friendship Volunteers". The criteria were that the name be "easy to remember" but "clearly state what our purpose is". Now in Chinese, this is easy - slap down 3 or 4 characters and you can tell the history of a dynasty it seems. In English though, you need a lot of letters!

Once the name was chosen, this volunteer wanted to organize a party for the students and the foreigners to celebrate the official kick-off of the student union. We helped draft their advertisements which were sent out via email and posted on the outside of the foreign teachers building. Well last Saturday was the day for the big event. It took place in the Student Activity Center on campus. The volunteers had a staffed bar serving (warm) beer and soda, and a nicely appointed dance floor replete with the requisite disco balls, light patterns, and spotlights. The evening kicked off with several dance performances. A few Chinese girls did some hip hop, while there was even a bit of Latin dancing from an older Chinese couple, who were followed by their younger proteges. There were two vocal performances in English by the winners of their equivalent to the American Idol contest at DMU. They also managed to talk Derek, a foreign teacher into playing the guitar and singing a few songs - he regaled the Chinese students with Oasis and John Denver. He had quite the singing voice, I was impressed. The evening continued with a bit of slow dancing. C and I were recruited on to the dance floor, but separately. I tried to dance with some Chinese girl, and some Chinese guy tried to show her the dance. Sadly we were not too successful but at least we gave it try. Finally, the rest of the evening was caught up in an epileptic's worst nightmare as the Chinese students flooded the dance floor to break it down to the world's best english techno. Apparently dancing all night to electronica is the Chinese night life, although they didn't so much dance as rotate in concentric human circles.

We topped off Saturday night with a brief visit to "Noah's: For your ark bar" with a few of the foreign teachers. We had some Asahi (very dry Japanese beer) and enjoyed some pizza from their oven, which wasn't all bad. All in all it was a good night. The student volunteers did a great job putting the event together on incredibly short notice. They are really great to us. All the teachers keep raving about the students. DMU should really advertise that the student volunteers exist - without them this experience would not be the great thing that it's been so far. We are certainly getting better at navigating with our limited Chinese but there are times it is invaluable to have a fluent speaker. It's also just a great cultural exchange. For example, we needed to go to the post office to mail our absentee voting request to our districts back in the US. We asked our volunteer to help us mail them. "Could you give us some help, we're trying to VOTE?"

On the way to the post office our volunteer remarked that it would be very expensive for 1.3 billion Chinese to vote in an election. A very astute economic observation no doubt, but nothing good comes cheap!