South of the Clouds

Here are some pictures from Yunnan, which is most certainly my favorite place I've been in the country. We spent two days hiking in Tiger Leaping Gorge (which was gorge-ous) and I think the deepest (or one of the deepest) gorges in the world. Here are some pictures:





A very small and loud kitten we found in the travel agency office in Lijiang. It was ferocious.



















A gloriously cool waterfall.















A goat! He walked towards us instead of running away. And then some of his friends joined him.














Canals in Lijiang











Sun rising over the mountains on the second day of hiking.













The mountains and what I believe is bamboo in the foreground. The mountains are the very eastern edge of the Himalayas, and are still relatively young and thus very jagged and pointy.









The guesthouse we stayed at over night. It was adorable and had a small army of tiny dogs and cats.












The gorge is very deep. The Yangtze is at the bottom and looks like milky coffee.















Ahh. There it is. The mighty Yangtze.

Zee END!

A bunch of our teachers, all except the left most teacher were my teachers for third year. There are only three male teachers in the whole program (over 30 teachers total). Second year has one and third year has two, but they didn't go out to eat with us.



Well, it is officially over. We graduated yesterday and then all went out to dinner together, for the first 英文桌子/English Table (we have Chinese Table every week, but this was the first time we got to speak English!) of the semester. It was very strange and a little anticlimactic to be allowed to speak English. Most of the teachers can't speak English really well, so we continued to speak Chinese with them. A bunch of them were too shy, but when the few that did try spoke, it was like they were very different people. They didn't seem like themselves and were struggling a lot to get their meaning across. Then I wondered, is that what we sound like to them? One teacher, who in Chinese is especially confident and articulate tried speaking English and it made her seem so much less herself- also she has a Russian accent, because she was taught English by a Russian program, which was a little amusing. After three months of English being so forbidden, it was very different to just have it be completely fine, no threats of being sent home. It almost feels more natural to speak Chinese. Also, since we've all met and gotten to know each other in Chinese, I don't know lots of people's English names or what their "real" personality is; it's really hard to understand people's sense of humor in Chinese. It's almost like we're re-meeting people after spending three months going to school with them. And I must admit though, I am a little sad to have the semester be finished, even though it was painfully hard at times, parts of it we're really great and lots of the teachers and students I will definitely miss.
My parents are flying in tomorrow and then we are spending until Friday in Beijing, then taking the train to Xi'an and staying there for a few days and then flying to Yunnan and eventually flying back to Beijing and home on the 14th of May. I am of course really excited to see them and be able to travel and see the Tomb of the First Emperor in Xi'an and Tiger Leaping Gorge (the deepest gorge in the world!) in Yunnan, among other things. It's a little frightening to be the sole translator for this adventure, because in the past I have always traveled with others who can speak Chinese, but now the task of understanding everything is on me. I think it'll be fine though.
I'm looking forward to seeing all of you back at home!

On the left is 焦老师 (Jiao laoshi), my independent project teacher, then 赵老师 (Zhao laoshi), who is one of my favorite teachers, then me, the on the right is my roommate 谢若菲 (her English name is Theora).





Only three days of class left! One more day of review, then a day of spoken test and a day of written test. Then Friday afternoon, we have some sort of graduation ceremony, then ENGLISH! We can speak as much English as our little hearts desire! And then they take us out to eat roast duck.
Last weekend we had 中文之夜 or Chinese Night. It's kind of like a talent show/play/lets all sing cheesy Chinese songs together kind of thing. They say it's "optional," but then force everyone to participate and made us practice all last Friday (no class because of the preparation) and Saturday morning. Most people's Chinese host families came and all the teachers watched, although some did participate too. I was a doctor in a confusing skit about a Chinese girl that only loves 外国人 (foreigners). It was fairly fun and amusing in the end.

Also, this is completely inconsequential, but it's been bothering me: All day today, starting before 7:45, when I ate breakfast, until about 5:30 there have been three Chinese guys outside, on the basketball court below my balcony, washing the ground. They have a large hose and two brooms and have been non-stop spraying water and sweeping the water in seemingly random directions. At first I thought maybe they were washing dirt off the court, but there isn't any dirt to wash away. So, my current conclusion is there are too many people and too few jobs, so useless jobs are created.
By the entrance to our school, there is a guard who stands and when a car want to enter, he picks up a cone and lets the car in then replaces the cone and resumes his standing. There is another such guard outside the supermarket, but he wears a much more official uniform, and gets to stand on a pedestal.

Aha! Greenery has emerged from the dusty dirty city that is Beijing! It is hard to believe that this same day's morning was possible one of the worst pollution days since I've been here, then it quickly turned into a very blue sky. Then a few hours later, got really windy and I think was a minor sandstorm. (Apparently common in the spring time because there are no trees left dividing the Gobi desert from Beijing, so the wind just continues blowing and picks up more and more dust and sand.) The leaves coming out on the trees and flowers blooming has definitely improved my mood and made it a little easier to study.




View from a very tiny park on the campus. The building on the right behind the trees is the library and I'm not sure what the red building is.






























Houzi Dawang! (Monkey King), the villain of the opera.










Wife of the general in the opera. She offered to kill herself to allow her husband to not have to worry about her while he is at war.










Alas, the right to speak English freely is so close and yet so far...only two weeks of classes left, but too much to do in those two weeks. However, contrary to my joy after finishing our semester long project presentation, we've just been assigned another 20 minute presentation on our favorite movie and why it's our favorite and such and such. Last Wednesday all the third year students had to present their duli baogao (independent project). It was set up like a research symposium, with three classroms simeltaneously having students present. We could choose which presentations to attend, and it was really interesting to see the topics people had chosen (the role of modern art in Beijing, recent trends in Chinese adoption, Americans' views toward the "Chinese Threat", Hutong's current role in Chiense tourism, etc.). My presentation went pretty well, aside from being nervous about speaking Chinese straight for 20 minutes and tryng to speak smoothly.
As one of my friends, who is also abroad said, it feels like I've just arrived in Beijing, but when I think back to last semester at Colby it seems like ages ago. I think my Chinese speaking abilities have improved a lot, but I can't really remember what my vocabulary and grammar level was when the semester started. Strange.
On Friday, we all went to the Peking Opera. I think this particular opera was directed at tourists because it contained very little dialogue and lots of kung fu action. And, not surprisingly, almost the entire audience was composed of waiguoren from various countries. It was probably the largest concentration of non-Chinese people I have seen in one place at one time since coming to China.
I also (a while ago) found half papayas for about 50 cents each. Mmmm.

Also, I think one reason Chinese people are so healthy in this almost toxic environment is because they non-stop drink green tea- always have a tea jar at hand.

Guizhou Trip

We a had a five day break from classes (last Tuesday until Sunday) so I went with two other girls to Guizhou province in southern China. We took the train there for about 30ish hours and flew back. We visited three different province in southern China. Guizhou is partly famous for having many non-Han Chinese ethnic groups and that attracts a fir amount of tourists. The first place we went to was a small town called Zhenyuan. When we arrived, we didn't know where to stay or what to do there so we asked a girl who worked at the train station. She helped us find a place to stay then invited us out to dinner and showed us the town. It's on the edge of a (very green) river and you can pay 3 mao (about 4 cents) to be paddled across the river. We stayed there for one night and visited a Buddhist temple that is built in the side of a mountain.
Then we took a bus to Xijiang, which was very clearly a tourist attraction and the largest Miao vilage in China. It is pretty isolated and before raods were built, it took one day of walking to bring salt to the people. We went to a tea shop and drank tea for a while and talked with the owner, who was a little outrageous. We also met two ridiculous (and very grubby) British students on the bus to Xijiang. They did not speak a word of Chinese and said they had just spent two months in Vietnam and were going to trak around China. The next day we went to a traditional Miao dance show and then climbed the smallish mountain that the village is built on. As we climbed the village became less tourist-y and more like the houses people live in. People were leading donkeys up the steps with bricks and other building materials to develop and build further up the hill. The village has been developed extremely quickly for tourist visiting purposes and all around people were building houses, etc. Also, since everything is made of wood, there are signs everywhere telling people to protect the homeland against fire. All the hills around the village are terraced for rice paddies and the occasional cabbage field. The views from the top were amazing and flowers were beginning to bloom too. We spent two nights there then took a few buses to another village called Qingyan. The village has a walled in portion (the ancient city) and the real city outside. One of their specialties is lots of different kinds of tofu, which sounded good, but actually was not. They have lots of chou dofu (smelly tofu) which you can smell from a great distance, as well as blow-torched (black) tofu, smoked tofu and some sort of cheesy weird tofu.
So, we spend a long time outside of the city walls and I think since it was Sunday they had a massive market with endless stuff. For example: clothing, shoes, lighters, baskets, hats, jars, animal parts of all sorts (bowls of pig blood, pig feet, eggs), baby ducks...
Guizhou is one of China's poorest provinces and it is clearly evident. Everything is pretty dirty (muddy, because the climate is wetter and with more trash on the ground because there are not armies of people sweeping it up everywhere). Also, there are pretty much no foreigners. We were a massive spectacle and people would just stop walking and look us or look really confused when we could speak Chinese. At the Xijiang dance show, we spend probably half an hour having out picture taken by Chinese people. blahhh. Once one person asks to have their picture taken everyone else stsrts and it never stops. Having only seen the developed cities of Beijing and Chengdu, it was very different to see how the other half of the population lives. Also, compared to Beijing, Guizhou is very inexpensive; I spent approximately $14 on four nights of lodging and about 30 cents on breakfast, for example. Returning to Beijing, everything looked really clean and modern.
(Sorry about the weird format-I'm not sure how to make it prettier.)
More photos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

单班课的事情

Well, I just got out of my dan ban ke (one-on-one class) and I want to write this partly so I don't forget all of China's craziness and because I want to share this craziness with all of you. First of all, youtube has been prohibited here (starting yesterday), which does not have a big effect on my daily life, but it another reminder of how much power the government has over the people. Secondly, today's kewen (lesson text) was about protecting endangered animals; pandas and tigers especially. So in dan ban ke, my teacher started out by saying that she thinks China should not protect pandas because they do not help the country's shehui fazhan (society's development/growth). At this point, I said that pandas did in fact help society's growth by attracting lots of tourists and making a lot of money for China. But, I found this comment surprising partly because Chinese people hold pandas as their national symbol and their "national treasure". Also, I'm pretty sure what she says is actually her opinion, and not just said so we can have a conversation--she seemed to have pretty strong feelings. After a while, she brought up Darwin and "survival of the fittest" and how today's people are innately smarter and more capable than those who lived thousands of years ago (Maya, Egyptians, etc.) because of it. Also, she said lots of Chinese are criticizing Darwin (partly because of his recent 200th anniversary) and saying that evolution is bu kenengde (impossible) because people could not have slowly evolved from lower forms of life over a long period of time, but must have over a fairly short period of time made a few huge advances, resulting in where we ae today.
She also said that since kong long ("scary dragons," literally, or dinosaurs) went extinct so long ago, but humans did not develop fazhande (developed) societies until fairly recently, there must have been something going on in the middle. At which point she said, some people (I don't know if she included herself in this group) think there were very advanced alien civilizations on earth, but archaeologists just haven't found any evidence yet. She said that the Maya and Egyptians also must have been waixing ren (aliens) because how could such unadvanced people create such advanced civilizations and build such huge pyramids? And because the pyramids aligned with the sun and stars and such, that must have been too complicated for ancient people to create. I asked her what she thought of Stonehenge, but I don't think she had heard of it.
I'm not really sure what to make of all this, but it was probably one of the most interesting dan ban ke I've had. And I don't think all of our teachers have the same opinions regarding these issues.
My roommate is an art major, and they often ask her any and all art related questions, and assume she must know the answer because she's an art major. For example, why are all of China's buildings gray and brown? Why don't people paint with more interesting colors? She said they also assume that since she's an art major, all of her opinions are completely different from other peoples'.

Yesterday's kewen was about euthanasia (I know, heavy subject) and in danban ke we were talking about religion, and how you religious beliefs can affect your position regarding euthanasia (and other issues). My teacher said that most Chinese people don't follow any religion, and asked me if Westerners always seem happy because they have religion. I said that may be one reason why people are happy, but not the whole reason...and so on. After class, she said when she has children, the best gift she will give them is religion-- make them go to church every Sunday.

We went to Wangfujing and Xiushui today; both markets. Wangfujing was attractive because they have scorpions, which one of my friends desperately wanted to try. They also sell lots of fake really expensive brands.
photos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

The Great Wall

We went to the Great Wall at Simatai today. There are many different portions of the wall tourists can visit, but I think this one is rather wilderness-y and not many people go to it. Nevertheless, there were a fair amount of tourists there, and mostly Americans. It's always amusing to watch their expression as we walk by, speaking Chinese, when they expect us to be speaking English, or at least a European language.

Summer Palace and things I consider distinctly Chinese

Well, nothing especially exciting has happened since last week. I went to the Summer Palace yesterday with a teacher and a few students. It is one the outskirts of the city, which meant an hour and a half bus ride, however, I finally got to see Beijing's "mountains" that people always talk about. Maybe if there wasn't so much smog, they would be visible from the city. Anyway, the palace was originally built in the 1700's, but was ransacked during the Anglo-French invasion, and then rebuilt in the late 1800's. It is where the Empress Dowager (mother of the emperor) lived, and I guess the emperor would visit sometimes. There is a large lake there, which is entirely man-made, and the dirt dug out of the lake (Kunming Lake) was used to make "longevity hill". Some other building names: Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, Cloud-Dispelling Hall, Temple of Buddhist Virtue, Sea of Wisdom Temple, Tower of Buddhist Incense, Tower of Lake and Mountain Views, etc. There is also a boat built in the water that doesn't move, meant to signify stability of the county (I think-sometimes I'm not sure when everything is in Chinese). Also, according to a guy we met on the bus and then acted as our tour guide, the Summer Palace has the longest corridor in China. (I'm doubtful- it didn't seem that long.)

Also, since I've been here for more than two months, I think I've pretty much gotten used to life here. But, I decided to make a list of typically Chinese things that I don't really notice anymore, but are different from America. (I realize some of these are generalizations.)

-bicycles: many, many more people ride bicycles here, and not just pedal-it-yourself bikes, but regular bikes with a motor attached so you don't have to pedal. Also, people often have one or two people riding on the same bike. Many people's jobs are to collect trash or recyclables, so they usually have bikes with obscenely large loads on the back. People selling food on the street always have their cart attached to a bike so they can quickly pedal away if the police come.
-tea jars: almost everyone owns a tea jar, and carries it with them everywhere (much like some Americans and their water bottles). Except most Chinese use loose leaf tea instead of tea bags.
-stairs: Most stairs that I have encountered in china are either too small or too big. And most are too small. Maybe it's because Chinese people are generally shorter than Americans, but they still seem awkwardly small.
-loud music: lots of stores have a stereo or loudspeaker set up outside their entrance, which plays very loud Chinese pop or American music. Or, they have recordings very loudly advertising their products.
-packaging: many products have, in my opinion, much too much packaging. When you buy a package of crackers, the crackers are then further divided in to groups of three and individually packaged. A container of cookies has the outside wrapping, then the plastic tray and then finally each cookie is again individually wrapped again. The reason is always "for freshness". No wonder China is buried in trash.
-food, in general: I think Chinese people are willing to eat many more parts of any given animal than Americans are willing to eat. At Wal-Mart, the meat section is quite a sight. For example, chicken feet can be found in every supermarket and convenience store, and I'm told children especially like them. Most fish and shrimp are served with the heads and eyeballs still attached. My host family likes to eat duck heads and sea cucumbers....I could go on, but I won't. -crossing the street: Chinese drivers do not stop for pedestrians. Do not. This means crossing the street oftentimes is darting in front of moving traffic and hoping to not get smooshed. because it is difficult to cross both lanes at once, many people will just stand in the middle of the road until the next lane clears. Also, taxi drivers are quite reckless drivers.
-pollution: Pollution everywhere. Always. I've noticed duct accumulates much more rapidly than in the US. Most days it's fine, but once in a while it doesn't feel healthy to breathe outside.
-spitting: Everyone spits everywhere. On the street/sidewalk especially, but also in the subway station, on the subway itself, in some not so fancy restaurants. I've come to laothe the sound people make just before they are going to spit. It's also especially disgusting when it's below freezing and the spit freezes on the sidewalk. blehhh.
-smoking: lots of people smoke, and despite most restaurant's signs saying "smoking is prohibited" they still smoke inside and the waiters/waitresses don't care. This results in me smelling like an ashtray after eating at most restaurants.
-cell phones: I think cell phones are a big status symbol in China; the fancier the better.
-clothing: Especially women's clothing is anything but simple. The more bows, buttons, glittery things, etc., the better. Lots of the clothing even my teachers wear seems like stuff pre-teen American girls would like. Also, many people wear clothing with meaningless English brands or phrases.

Chengdu: Land of the pandas

We flew back to Beijing last night after a week of galavanting through China's southwestern countryside. We left last Friday after the midterm exams and took the train for 25 hours to Chengdu. The train is arranged with small cabins, each with six bunks (three on each side) and outside of the cabin there is a hallway and small chairs by the windows. It was fairly comfortable and quite interesting to see other parts of the country besides the city. A large portion of the trip was through mountains and fields of safflowers (or rapeseed- used to make oil). It was also fun to talk to the other people (real Chinese people)- one guy taught us some Chinese tongue twisters and Chinese songs and games.
On Sunday, the entire group went to the panda research center, to see the pandas!! This was the one place I saw foreigners throughout the entire trip. The panda center was really green and lush with bamboo and little winding pathways to the panda enclosures. Sichuan's climate is subtropical, so they actually have wildlife and rain and flowers and such. It was already spring when we arrived, which was such a relief from dry, dusty Beijing. We saw giant pandas and baby pandas and red pandas and also a few peacocks wandering around. After the pandas, a few of us went out to huo3guo3 (hotpot) which is one of Sichuan's specialties and so spicy it is painful to eat. They gave us a boiling cauldron of hot peppers and peppercorns, and, because we are not Sichuanese, a small non-spicy section in the middle. Hot pot basically consists of plates of raw meat, vegetables, tofu and mushrooms that you place in the boiling hotness and let cook. Then eat. Ahhh. I have never eaten anything so spicy. Everyone had tears running down their very red faces and piles of tissues from blowing their nose. It was delightful.
After that, we went to renmingongyuan, a park, and did some paddle boating. For dinner we went to a xiaochi (small eats/ snack) restaurant. Xiaochi are another one of Sichuan's specialties and there are vendors selling kebabs, fruit, breads, desserts and other things (like chicken feet) along most every street.
On Monday we went to Le Shan, which has the world's biggest Buddha. He is 71 meters tall and very serene looking, carved out of the side of a mountain. They take great pride in saying you can have a picnic on his toenail, it's so big. Then we went to another hotel near Emei Shan, which has its own hot springs. A bunch of us went swimming in the hot springs, which was wonderful. They have different pools of different temperatures set up and then a large pool of cold water. There are also saunas, for the full temperature range.
On Tuesday, we went to Emei Shan, which is one of China's sacred Buddhist Mountains. About half of the group stayed near the bottom and hiked around the monkey zone and the other half hiked to the top. The mountain is all stairs ( I think to prevent erosion, etc) which makes the climbing slightly monotonous. And they go one forever and ever. We started at 10:30 in the morning and climbed until about 6:00 to a small "guest house" (actually is was an unheated building and we slept in a small room in the basement) where we slept over (for $7 a night). Teh owner told us to close the doors (they don't have locks) because somethimes the monkeys come in an steal valuables. The mountain has lots of small snack stands along the way, with the owners who live there year round. This is quite impressive, because it is really misty (you're basically in a cloud) and rainy and cold. As you climb higher, the mist tuns to ice and it is pretty snowy. We arrived at the guest house soaked and freezing and tired. The next morning we got up a 4:30 AM to hike to the top and watch the sun rise. It was pretty terrifying hiking in the dark up to the summit, especially because Emei has so many monkeys. We encountered the monkeys once, during the first day. There were probably a dozen of them, sitting on railings and watching us. A few of my friends, who were hiking with different groups has monkeys jump on them and try to take things. They like cameras and soda. (One monkey took my friend's contact solution and tried to drink it, but upon realizing it was not soda got upset and threw it is the woods and hit her). They are very smart creatures. We reached the summit at 7:00 ish and watched the sunrise, which was really beautiful. The elevation is 10,167 ft., so we were far above the cloud cover. Then we took the cable car down and the bus back to Chengdu.
On Thursday we went to the Wenshu monastery, a Zen Buddhist monastery in Chengdu and then went to another park and spent time at a chaguar (tea restaurant). Chengdu's pace is much slower than Beijing's and it seems as if people don't really do much all day except sit around drinking tea and playing cards. In the evening we went to get massages ($18 for two hours) which was nice after climbing the days before.
On Friday we wandered around looking at badly translated t-shirts and eating xiaochi. Then we flew back to Beijing to continue studying, studying, studying.
Photos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

On Friday afternoon at 2:30 (sharp!) the whole bunch of us ACC students are heading to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in south-west China. We are taking the train there, which is twenty-five hours and we are flying back. I'm not really sure of the plans, aside from I know we will be visiting a panda research center and climbing Emei Shan, which is one of the four sacred Buddhiust mountains of China. Sichuan also has a reputation for very spicy food, which I'm looking forward to.
Last weekend I went with a few other students and a teacher to Prince Gong's Palace, which is an extremely elaborate former palace of this prince. He lived there in the late 1700's during the Qing Dynasty and built the palace using money extorted from the peasants through raising taxes. He is rregarded as a villian in chinese history. The compound has many buildings, including a few two story buildings, an opera house and many acres of gardens. He also build many miniature foresty areas, so you can walk down winding paths and pretend you're out in nature. They all have names like "pathway to seclusion". He also built a miniature Great Wall that you can climb up and look down on his pond and ducks. He also decided that bats are good luck since bat is bian1fu2 and the word for abundance/good luck is fu2 so there are tiny bats carved in lot sof the railings and decorative carvings around enterance ways. There is even a bat shaped pond. It is quite extravagant.
After visiting the palace, we wandered around the Houhai Lake area and the hutongs. The hutongs are narrow alleyway like places where people used to live (and some still do) in Beijing. Most have been demolished to build bigger roads and buildings (and for the Olympics), but a few have been preserved. Since the hutongs are such a popular tourist destination, there and endless amounts of bicycle drawn "carriages" that you can ride in so you don't have to walk through the hutongs (becuase walking is so tiring). The men that pedal these bicycles are really aggressive about asking if you want a ride. Since we clearly look foreign, they all surrounded us and tried to get us to give them money. There are literally hundreds of them lined up waiting where cabs drop people off. After walking around far a while we took the bus home (for 14 cents).

It's been snowing for the past few days, which is unusual since before this it had not snowed all winter in Beijing. As soon as it starts snowing, people equipped with brooms rush out sweep the snow into neat little piles at the edge of the road and the sidewalk. It was pretty warm today, though, so most of the snow has melted.
The third year students all went to a you4er4yuan2 (preschool/kindergarten), and let me tell you the children are all ta4i ke3ai4le (too cute)! Their teachers said they were very excited for us to come so we could "work together". I'm not exactly sure why we went to a kindergarten, but they had us play guessing games with the children and then they could earn xiao3 li3wu4 (small presents) if they guessed correctly. The children I was with were all 4 years old and at first just stared at me, not knowing what to make of the situation. It was also interesting because one of the xiao3 peng2you3 (small friends/students) is a French girl, and she clearly stands out. The teacher said it took her just a month before she could speak Chinese with her classmates and make friends. When we arrived, all of the students were doing some sort of exercise dance to very cutesy music. We were encouraged to join in. They all take dance, singing, English, reading, math (they do multiplication at age 5 or 6), and art. They also must drink lots of water and eat lots of green vegetables (must be green, no cauliflower or carrots). They also have to play outside for an hour each day.
Next week is the last week of classes before we have a week off and all of us are taking the train (25 hours) to Sichuan and traveling for a week. But before the break, we have the midterm exam, which is, as far as I know a two hour written test and a half hour oral presentation. gahhh.
Photos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

Yesterday, for the language/culture practicum (fun activity after the weekly test) the third year students went to Niujie Mosque, which is the oldest and biggest mosque in the Beijing area. It was very nice weather due to the rain the previous day, so they sky was blue and the ground was washed clean. After the visiting the mosque we went to try traditional Mu1si2lin1 (Muslim) food. I had some sort of noodle dish, but others were more adventurous and tried cow's stomach with peanut sauce.
Today, a teacher took a bunch of us to the Temple of Heaven Park (tian1tan2gong1yuan2) and then to the hong2qiao1 pearl market. The park was quite lively because of the good weather, there were lao3bai3xing4 (regular people) singing, playing instruments, flying kites, painting characters with water on the sidewalk, dancing, playing cards...
After the park we went to Hongqiao market, which is a very westernized market. The first floor is all cell phone acccessories and electonics and such. The second floor has clothing and bags and the thrid floor has chuan1tong3 (traditional) items like scrolls, fans, chopsticks, jewelry and of course oodles of pearls. Because the market attracts so many westerners, all the vendors try to speak english to us and some of them are a little pushy. They are usually a little nicer when they realize we can speak Chinese. I ended up buying a carved seal of my name- you pick out a stone and write your name (Chinese or English) and come back in ten minutes and they have carved you name into the block and it can be used as a stamp. I also bought a Mao propaganda poster. We found one vendor who had lots of original photos, books, posters, etc. from the Mao era. He was quite nice and willing to show us all kinds of pictures and photos.
Then my roommate and I tried corn juice (hot corn juice). There is a store near us that sells only corn juice of many different varieties.
Lots of photos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

Today it's raining! According to Xinhua (China's main news source) it has not rained in Beijing since October 26, 2008 so it has been a long time without water. Everything has been kind of dusty and very, very dry. Yay water!

Today is the last day of the New Year Festival, called the Lantern Festival (Yuan2xiao1jie2). This means the last day of fireworks (finally!) and eating tang1yuan2, which are small dumplings made of sticky rice and filled with sweet bean curd and served in warm water. They are fairly slimy, but still quite good. Besides the holiday nothing really exciting has happened recently. The weather has been fairly good, so on Saturday I ventured outside to study. There is a very small "park" on the campus of the university (right now it's mostly dead grass and extremely dry soil, but hopefully when spring comes it might turn green) where people (usually elderly people) gather in the morning to do exercises. When I went, there were a few mothers with their typically over bundled up babies waddling around. The temperature got close to 60 degrees Fahrenheit which was quite comfortable and there was almost no pollution so the sun was shining strongly. These past few days, the weather has also been pretty warm, but the air is so hazy it feels unclean to breathe. My roommate and I also found a clothing store that sells fairly normal clothing (i.e. not too many extra frills and sparkles and bows and lace...) and is also very cheap. I bought two shirts for $2 each.
On Saturday night a bunch of us went to a "western restaurant" called Annie's. I ordered vegetable pizza which was really good after so much Chinese food. Also, they gave us large glasses (!) with cold water (!) and we got to use a fork and knife. Although it did cost about three times as much as a regular Chinese meal. mmmmm.

Well, since yesterday, something exciting did happen. Because of the copious amounts of fireworks last night, a skyscraper very close to the University caught fire. All 44 stories were burning, but the building did not collapse. It was also very near the new CCTV building, but the CCTV building was not damaged. Even after the building started burning (30 foot flames, lots and lots of smoke, etc.) people still kept setting off fireworks.

Yesterday night, the entire group of us (about 50 students) and assorted Chinese host families went to a "Flying Acrobatics Show." First we took a bus ride for all of seven minutes to the theatre. The show was kind of like a circus, but without the clowns and animals- only the acrobatics. The show began with dry ice and lasers and mystical music and some sort of prologue about ancient tribes worshipping the sun. Then a man dressed in some sort of ridiculous costume emerged on a platform about fifty feet up and a few live parrots flew to him from the audience. Lots of amazing tricks were performed and everyone wore over-the-top costumes. It was quite impressive how flexible some of those people were- it seemed like the women had no backbones.
Photos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

Today I saw a bird, which is one of the only live animals I've seen in the city so far, besides pets. It made me miss living not in the city.
One of the major parts of the program is the duli baogao (independent project). A component of this includes mandatory interviewing of at least five Chinese people. Since I've only been here a few weeks I don't really know many "real" Chinese people, so I ended up interviewing the people I spent New Year's with and then I sat in a Starbucks and waited for people to come talk to me. I've learned that foreigners are especially intriguing when they can speak (or try to speak) Chinese. So I often study the new characters and lesson texts in Starbucks or other coffee shops and people will inevitably come and talk to me.
My roommate and I also found a store where everything is liang kuai (about thirty cents). They have quite a selection of strange items, like screwdrivers, spatulas, cookware (pots and pans for 30 cents each!), socks, children's toys, etc. I'm still surprised by how cheap things are here.

In hopes of eating something that is not Chinese food, we went to a very nice Indian restaurant in one of Beijing's hutongs (old streets that have mostly been changed due to modernization and the Olympics). The hutongs are quite pretty at night, with lights in the trees and fireworks in the street. (I found out that fireworks are permitted until the fifteenth day of the New Year, so until then they continue day and night.) It turned out the people who worked at the restaurant could not speak Chinese, despite their restaurant is in a very Chinese part of Beijing. Also, that night, all of the patrons were waiguoren (foreigners) so they too were speaking English. It was a very strange experience to be surrounded by English, but only be able to speak Chinese.

On Tuesday, I went with three other students and one of the fourth year teachers to Yonghe (Lama) Temple, which is a very important temple to a specific sect of Buddhism. The road to the temple was lined with small shops selling incense (to be used in the temple). We bought a box. The temple consists of five halls and five courtyards each with different shrines. There are large fires burning outside to light the incense, then you pray and then throw the incense into the fire. The place was quite fragrant and smoky, but very interesting. there were a few real monks, but most everyone were tourists. After progressing through the five halls and courtyards, we had used up the box of incense. ( There is a rule that if you use five sticks of incense in the first courtyard, you must use the smae amount is each successive courtyard, or else bad luck.)
After visiting the temple three of us went to Ditan Park (地坛公-temple of earth) for the Spring festival festivities. Honestly, I think it was the most people I've ever seen in one smallish space. there was hardly room to walk and if you were seperated from your family/friends, there was no hope. We didn't stay long because it was so cold and crowded, but it was fun to look at the over the top decorations, all red of course. they had many of the games one would find at a circus, with large stuffed animal prizes and cotton candy. Also the river nearby was completely frozen, so people were walking on it.
As a side note, I heard (from Chinese person) that it hasn't percepitated here in three months!
And: the fireworks are still going. still. during the daytime and night time; it almost sounds like the city is under attack.

The fireworks display was most amazing around 11:30-12:30 on New Year's Eve. We tried to climb up on to the roof of our dorm building to get a better view of the city. However it was locked, so instead we climbed up the library next door and stood on the fire escape to get a better view of the fireworks. I think it was about 13 stories up so the view was quite good (even though many of the surrounding buildings were still taller). The sky was lit up in every direction because of the massive amount of fireworks and the air grew hazier as the night went on, collecting the smoke from the explosions. It was like nothing I've ever seen before; quite an experience. The celebration is a little like the 4th of July, except that the fireworks are launched from everywhere instead of a single location, they last for hours and anyone in the city can buy them and set them off anywhere they like (like on the sidewalk or in the road). To be honest, I'm a little surprised the whole city hasn't burned down yet. (I also heard that fireworks were banned for a few years a few years ago, so people are still excited about being able to set them off again.) I have been hearing fireworks explosions since I arrived here and I can still hear them occasionally as I write this.
I took some pictures and a few videos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

Today is the eve of Chinese New Year, which is equivalent to Christmas Eve in America (except everyone in China celebrates it and there are three times as many people in China as in America). I spent most of the day with a very generous family whose daughter goes to Wellesley college and knows my neighbor at home. She and her father came to pick me up at my dorm and from there we went to her apartment which is fairly near the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube from the Olympics. At the apartment, we picked up her mother and the four of us went to an very fancy restaurant for lunch. The restaurant is especially famous for its Peking roast duck (kao3ya1) which is a specialty of Beijing. All the waiters and waitresses were dresses in traditional Chinese clothing from the Tang (?) Dynasty and each table had a specific server who would linger and refill tea or take away empty dishes (or in my case, teach me to properly eat the roast duck). In addition to the roast duck (which is generally eaten in a type of small thin flour tortilla with cucumber slices and sauce) there was also fried rice, spicy duck tongue salad (!), fruit salad (cubed watermelon covered in mayonnaise), some sort of pork, duck hearts and so on... In general, the Chinese are very polite and will continue to give you more food until you strongly refuse. So, trying to the a polite guest I was cajoled into eating a duck heart (something I would never dare to eat in the US) and part of a duck tongue and of course the roast duck, which was actually quite good despite the fact that I try to avoid meat.
After the meal, we went to another of their apartments (I gathered that they were in the process of moving into this new apartment, because neither apartment looked completely furnished). There, Weiye (the Wellesley student), her father and I cleaned the place and put up New Year scrolls and decorations. This apartment seemed to be very newly built. It was on the 27th floor of a sort of apartment building village. Everything in the apartment was very new and shiny and modern looking. We also watched some of the New Year's celebration on CCTV. It was done by the same people who did the opening ceremony for the Olympics, so it was extremely bright and colorful and over-the-top and all of China's famous figures were there. After a few hours it was time to eat again. We drove back to the first apartment and ate dinner there. Weiye's mom had made a very large meal with fish, duck, dumplings (both fried and steamed), mushrooms, salad (which they made for me as an American dish), sausage, leeks, etc. There was also sea cucumber soup with live sea cucumbers in it(!). I did not know they were live until later (I was not brave enough to eat them, so I just drank some of the broth). Then we watched more of the New Year's celebration on TV. Then they drove me back to the dorm.
Fireworks are a big part of the New Year and since I've been here, I have been hearing them every night. However, tonight was the biggest display yet. Unlike the 4th of July where people all gather and watch the fireworks for an hour or so while professionals set them off, in Beijing, everyone buys their own fireworks and sets them off when ever and where ever they like. So, on the drive back to the dorm, the sky was lit up in all directions. On every street corner people were setting of sparklers and fireworks (real ones-the kind that launch 100 feet into the air and then explode). It was quite amazing. It has been going on for hours, and the biggest display is said to be at midnight tonight.

Starting today, we have five days off from class because of Chinese New Year (Chun1jie2). It is China's biggest holiday of the year and people typically have lots of time off from school or work and most go home to spend the holiday with their family. After our weekly test this morning, we had a "competition" in which all of the ACC students participated. We were divided into seven teams (there are 48 of us total) and we had to do things like move as many round chocolates using chopsticks, while simultaneously answering questions about answering Chinese trivia questions. There was musical chairs, jiaozi (dumpling) eating contest, trying to blow out candles by saying aspirated chinese syllables. My team came in second place so we won some M&Ms. We were originally going to go out and do some more educaitonal, but it was deemed too cold, so we stayed inside. (It's -3F with the wind chill.)
After the contest we all went to a restaurant for zhong1wen2 zhuo1zi (Chinese table). We had entirely too much food, as usual. During Chinese New Year they traditionally eat fish and will put the entire animal on the plate (the wor for fish is yu2, which sounds like the word for abundance and riches, and it is traditional to serve the entire fish). The teachers at my table also said eating the fish's eyes is very good for one's health, so they proceeded to poke the eyeballs out and eat them. It's also (apparently) good for your health to eat the chicken's head and skin, so those were eaten too.
Despite the extremely cold and windy weather, the air has been much cleaner these past few days (due to the wind) so it has been much nicer to breathe outside.

On Sunday my roommate and I and a friend of my roommate's who it doing a CET program in Beijing (another chinese language program in Beijing) went to 798 which is Beijing's art district. It was originally just one factory building that held artists' work, but since ethen it has expanded to a fairly large area with nearly a hundred galleries and small cafes and shops. Since we went on Sunday, many of the galleries were closed, but we managed to visit a few.
Since then I've been going to class every day and strugglisng to finish all the homework every night. I think all af the teachers (there are 18 in third year, I think) know that we have almost unmanageable amounts of work and yet they don't try to make it more manageable. I think they have a strange pride in knowing we work all afternoon and evening.
Since last might was Obama's inaguration, many of the students went to a bar to watch the ceremony on TV. But, since we are in China, it began at 1:00 AM and they didn't get back until after 2:00AM. Needless to say, people were very sleepy in class today and it's very hard to hide in a class of 8, 4, 2 or 1 student(s). In my largest class of 8, three students were noticably nodding off and since the class depends on knowing the answer because you may be called on at any time it was quite obvious. The teacher even began throwing chalk at one of the students.
The teachers will also often aske when we went to sleep the night before. If I say I went to sleep before 1:00 AM they think that that is great and that six hours of sleep is sufficent. (I do not agree).
The pollution has also been quite bad lately. I tried to take a few pictures, but it doesn't really capture whgat's it like.
Next weekend is China's biggest holiday- Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival. Everyone has work or school off and millions of people go home to be with family. We also have a few days off to go out and see the city, which will be nice.
Photos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

Today we went to the Forbidden City, which is next to Tian'anmen Square in the center of the city. It is an extremely large complex of buildings built in the 1400's, in the center of modern Beijing. It was the home of the Emperor during the Ming and Qing Dynasties and consists of nearly 1000 different buildings. The buildings are all very ornately decorated and very beautiful. From the center of the city, the temple like buildings in Jingshan Park can be seen. Even though the day was extremely cold and the air was very hazy, there were many, many people there. I heard people speaking english for the first time since coming here.
Even though there were many foreigners at the Forbidden City, people came and asked to have their picture taken with us at least a few times. Once, an entire group of small school children wanted their picture taken with us (there were seven of us). They got very excited and their parents were very eager to take their picture with us. Quite strange.
Photos: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

Photos from a hotpot restaurant we went to yesterday and photos from the Forbidden City.
http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss353/klebling/

We had our first lesson test today, which covered four lessons and over 450 new vocab words. We have tests every Friday at 8AM and they last two and a half (!) hours. It was quite an exhausting experience. And to make it even more exhausting we immediately had to roam the streets of Beijing and find three people to interview (we were given a sheet with pre-written questions). We had to find one waitress (fu4yu4yuan2) and ask them about their restaurant's atmosphere and best dishes, etc. Then we had to find any type of person and ask them about their family- how many kids, living situation, job, if they are willing to be friends with foreigners (wai4guo2ren2). Lastly, we had to find a person who sells stuff on the street and ask them why they sell things on the street, how much things cost, if they were willing to bargain, etc. Most people are fairly polite and willing to help, but some people are quite rude and will not talk to foreigners. For example, I interviewed a woman who sold newspapers on the street who said she was not willing to make friends with foreigners because it is tai4ma2fan (too much trouble). I also interviewed a worker at the local supermarket. As I was aking her questions, a bunch of shoppers stood and watched- we foreigners draw a tlot of attention especially if we can speak Chinese.
After the interviewing we had to present our findings to the rest of the third years. Then we finally got to go to lunch. On Fridays we always have zhong1wen2zhuo1zi (chinese table). We go to local restaurants with the teachers in groups of three or four and have lunch. It is nice because we don't have to pay. Today I also go to try nai3cha2 (milk tea or bubble tea) which was quite good.
Lately, the pollution has been pretty bad. There is a constant haze in the air- buildings that are very close by have smudged appearance. Many people wear face coverings to keep from
breathing the air.
We will also be meeting host families tonight. Each host family has two ACC students. I am sharing my family with a fourth year student who was here last semester.
Lastly, a quick complaint: Every time I go to restaurants to eat (which is pretty much every night for dinner) my clothes come out smelling like smoke and food and it is horrible. I don't like to wear the same thing twice because it absorbs such strong food and smoke smells (also every restaurant has signs that say smoking is forbidden, but people still do it and the fuwuyuan don't to anything). So, to clean my clothes I tried to do laundry for the first time yesterday. However, Chinese washing machines are not a good as American ones. I apparently put too much clothing inside so it couldn't clean effectively or drain any of the excess water. So I ended up with dripping wet clothing that still hasn't dried yet. zaogao!

Today was the second days of classes. Each day, we have four classes beginning at 8AM. The first class is called da4ban2ke4 (large class) and has 8-10 students. It moves extremely fast (taking notes is not allowed because it slows you down too much) and covers the new grammar and sentence patterns in the lesson text. The next class is at 9AM and is called xiao3ban1ke4 (small class) and has 4-5 students. This class also moves very fast and drills the students on the information covered in the da4ban1ke4. Next is the dui4hua4ke4 (dialogue class) which consists of two students and one teacher. This class is slightly slower and more relaxes and generally covers yesterday's homework relating to the lesson subject. The last class is dan1ban1ke4 (single class) and is one student and one teacher. It is also fairly relaxed- generally a discussion of the lesson relation to China and America and oneself. Between the third and fourth classes, I have and hour break for lunch (11:00-12:00).
Today's lesson was on rock and roll and the "father" of Chinese rock and roll. Each lesson (for third year students) has between 80-120 new words each lesson as well as a lesson text. To make sure you know the new words and the lesson text, there is a ting1xie3 (listen and write) every day where the teacher will say two new words and two sentences form the lesson text and you have to write what is said.
It is a fairly exhausting schedule, designed to improve language skills very quickly. We will also have weekly tests on Friday and weekly essays as well as a semester long independent project, but those haven't started yet, because it is only the first week.
On Sunday, we went to Jingshan Park and Tian'anmen Square. It was extremely cold and windy, so we didn't stay long at either place, but they are very close so it is easy to visit again in the future.
I am continually surprised at how cheap things are here. I went to fa1bao3, which is a small supermarket across the street form the university and bought a bunch of fruit, bread, peanut butter and jelly, oatmeal, a plate and bowl and spoon and knife and some candy all for less than $20. Generally meals cost around $2-$3. If a meal is more than $4 it is too expensive. I also usually don't finish the meals because they are often times too large.
Some photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/klebling/

Everyone signed the language pledge today, beginning four months of only Chinese speaking (e-mialing non Chinese speakers is permitted). So far, it has been more enjoyable than I anticipated. But classes haven't stared yet either. Today we had a three hour meeting discussing how to study and how to deal with speaking only Chinese, etc., then we had another meeting with our specific grade level when we received copious amounts of textbooks and homework. There are around fifty students in the program and over thirty teachers so it's almost a one to one ratio.
After the meetings and a reception, one of the returning students (who was in Beijing with ACC last semester) took a few of us to Wal-Mart (wo4 er2 ma3) to buy some food and things for the dorm room that are very very cheap. There are also many smaller stores close to the university to buy more authentic Chinese food, which I go to more often.
Yesterday, another one of the returning students took a few of us to a massive market in the western part of the city. It is six floors and has more items and people squeezed into a small space than I've ever seen before. It was also my first experience bargaining (nothing really has a fixed price and they generally try to charge westerners more money so it's useful to bargain).
In general, I've found most people to be very nice and encouraging toward my (and others') attempts to speak Chinese. They will usually smile and sometimes laugh, because we definitely do stand out, especially in groups.

Some pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/klebling/

Hello All,
I have successfully made it to China and am currently in my room at the Capital University of Economics and Business, which is close to the center of the city. The flight went by faster than I expected (it was almost thirteen hours) and there were wonderful views flying over the Arctic and Siberia. After landing, another girl I took the subway to a stop near the university. Both the airport and the subway are very new and shiny looking and quite clean. It also costs only twenty-five cents to ride the subway, which is convenient.
My room is in the foreign students area of the campus and setup like a hotel room. All the rooms are doubles, so I am sharing my room with another girl from Arizona. There are university workers who come every other day to change the sheets and towels and make the beds (lots of cheap labor in China).
Today we had a short tour on foot of the area around the university. There are many, many restaurants, although not all of them can be trusted for cleanliness, so it's best not to try new places more a month or so, until one's stomach has adjusted to different food and bacteria (as I was told by one of the teachers). All the teachers are very nice, but very serious about only speaking Chinese. We have not signed the language pledge yet, so everyone is trying to squeeze in as much English as possible before then. After the tour we went out to lunch at a tiny restaurant. They had tanks of frogs and fish at the front if you wanted to order those off the menu (we did not).
This afternoon, we had written and oral placement exams which were long and fairly difficult. They will place us into one of four levels in a few days.
About the pollution: When flying into Beijing, the first thing I noticed was how gray everything looked. Now, it is winter, but things looked especially bleak. It was difficult to see more than a few thousand feet because of the particulates in the air and all of the trees look kind of sad. The bushes around the university are covered in a thin film of dust. It was pretty clear today and the sky was blue, but the air pollution is still evident even though it wasn't as thick as the day before. Many people wear face masks when walking around the city.