Rainy, Rainy

Today and yesterday have been rainy and cold. I guess this is a positive thing because it has been really dry here and I can't remember the last time it rained.
It is also the 73rd anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre today (Dec. 13). To commemorate the day, there were very, very loud siren/horns going off starting at 10:00 AM this morning and continuing for almost an hour.
Nothing much of especial interest has happened recently. We had a Christmas decorating party this past weekend, which was nice. There was even hot cider (!) but that's about as Christmas-y as it gets. It's hard to believe it's already mid-December....

Amazing Photos of Xinjiang

Here is the link to some photos of Xinjiang taken by my fellow traveling friend and his super fancy camera
http://picasaweb.google.com/aefoerster/XinjiangNovember2010#

Tidbits:

Xinjiang is technically on Beijing time, because all of China is one one time zone, but this doesn't functionally make sense because Xinjiang is around 3000 km west of Beijing, meaning that on Beijing time the sun doesn't rise in Xinjiang until around 10:00 am. Because of this, people who live there go by "Xinjiang time," which is two hours earlier than Beijing time. So, when it's 10:00 am Beijing time, it's actually 8:00 am Xinjiang time. All government run things open on Beijing time, but non-Han children (especially far out west) seem to go to school on Xinjiang time. When making appointments, etc. people generally specify whether they mean Xinjiang time or Beijing time.

Uygurs seemed to really like their hats. They have many different types of hats, but most resemble Russian-ish hats that are furry and stand fairly tall on one's head. They don't cover one's ears though, which seemed counter-intuitive because it is so cold in Xinjiang.

While traveling in Kashgar, we saw hardly any Han Chinese people (or foreign tourists, for that matter) and the few Han Chinese we did see were tourists and definitely seemed like outsiders.

On a completely different topic:
Most of the classes here use textbooks that are kept on reserve in the library and can be checked out for three hours and then must be returned. However, many students take these textbooks to print shops and get the whole book copied and bound for a few dollars. There is no enforcement of copyright laws for these books....which also makes me think of plagiarism. Since the beginning of the year, there have been a few instances of students plagiarizing and getting caught- I think all the cases involved Chinese students. There is definitely a different mentality when it comes to taking someone else's ideas or just blatantly copying paragraphs without citing sources. Students seem to think that if they can avoid doing the work or research by taking some one else's, then they are saving themselves the time and effort. This is not to say that they are not capable of completing the task themself, but just that it is more efficient not to.

Lastly:
It's the first day of Hanukkah on Thursday and the first day of December tomorrow (advent!), but it certainly doesn't feel like it here. It was in the mid-60s yesterday and all of the leaves still haven't fallen off the trees. My thanksgiving was in Urumqi and we ended up going to an Uzbek restaurant and having central Asian food rather than any sort of traditional American Thanksgiving food, so it kind of feels like Thanksgiving hasn't happened yet.

Back from the West

Well, it certainly has been a long time since the last post. I got back from Xinjiang (way far out in western China, north of Tibet) on Sunday afternoon and am now in the midst of a really busy week...again. It seems like our "midterms" have been going on for a month now. Tomorrow I have an exam in Environmental Economics and then a paper in Anthropology and on in Social Issues due at the end of the week, as well as a presentation in Sino-US relations.
But, Xinjiang. It was a wonderful trip, although certainly cold at times. We flew last Friday evening from Nanjing to Urumqi (乌鲁木齐 in Chinese), which is the capital of Xinjiang. The city itself doesn't look too different from any other Chinese city except that most signs have Uygur writing as well as mandarin characters. The city is supposedly a bit less than fifty percent Uygur and a bit more than half Han Chinese. Just from walking around the city, there is a definite feel that some sections are mainly Han and some are mostly Uygur. Also, since the riots in 2009, there are odd bands of Han policemen roaming the city with the full police outfit and shields...just in case another riot breaks out. There are cameras all around the city also for that purpose. Since the riots I was told that nine Uygurs have been executed.
Xinjiang is known for its raisins and dried fruits in general as well as its nuts and bread. Yum yum. They grow these yellow/gold grapes that make very sweet greenish yellow raisins. It was great fun going to all the stalls at the market and trying the dozens of different varieties of raisins.
We only spent one night in Urumqi and then flew to Kashgar (喀什）near the border of Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan. On Sunday we went to the Sunday market/bazaar and the animal market, which only happens on Sunday. People come from all around with animals in the back of their truck and buy and sell. There were the typical cows and sheep and goats, but also camels! They sell for 10,000 RMB. Lamb is a big food staple in Xinjiang- they have it in pretty much everything. Despite my aversion to meat I tried the lamb on a few occasions and it was pretty good. One ubiquitous dish is called zhua1fan4 (抓饭）and is made of rice with two types of carrots and lamb all kind of fried together. They're also really big on yogurt.
The next day we went on a two day tour to Karakul Lake, which is even close to the border of Kyrgyzstan than Kashgar. Surprisingly (to me, at least) both Kashgar and Urumqi were really polluted, so it was nice to drive out of the city and into areas with blue sky. There were three of us from Nanjing and then we met an Australian at the hostel in Kashgar, so the four of us went on this expedition together. Our driver was a really nice old-ish Uygur man who spoke Chinese fairly well and never seemed to get cold. He took us to a Kyrgyz family's house for tea (actually yak milk) and bagels, which was really nice, even though we couldn't really understand what everyone was saying. Then we passed by a wedding celebration which involved a lot of men on horses and a dead lamb thet they were all trying to pull in different directions.
That night we stayed in a Kyrgyz family's stone house by the lake. They made us dinner and gave us many many blankets, which were all necessary because when the fire went out, it was very cold inside. This whole area is a desert, so they collect water from mountain streams that drain into the lake. It's also at around 13,000 feet and this altitude can definitely be felt when trying to walk uphill. We spent the next day hiking around the lake, which was beautiful and then driving back to Kashgar.
Eventually we made our way back to Urumqi and went to see Tianchi (天池）a lake a few hours outside of Urumqi. This lake was also beautiful, unlike Karakul, it was surrounded by pine trees and a foot or so of snow, which made it look almost like New England in the winter. Unlike all the Chinese on our tour, we opted to walk (gasp) up the road to the lake instead of paying the ridiculous fee of $14 for a 5 km ride. It was really nice to be outside in clean, fresh air and see the cows and sheep grazing by the side of the road.
On Friday we flew to Shanghai and stayed for two nights and finally took the train to Nanjing on Sunday morning.
More descriptions to come and pictures here: http://nanjingchina.shutterfly.com/pictures

New Foods!

National Holiday

Well, it seems as though it's been almost a month since the last post, although it doesn't feel like that much time has passed. The weather is getting a bit colder here, but still very comfortable. The air conditioning has been turned off in the Center so the classrooms are no longer overly cooled. Perhaps it's temporary or perhaps coming with the changing season, but the past few days have had fairly bad air pollution, comparable to hazy, smoggy days in Beijing. I'm not sure whether the the haze is all pollution and particulate matter or some part of it is also water vapor, because the climate here is more humid than that of Beijing. However, I do still prefer Nanjing to Beijing due to the abundant greenery. Speaking of which... for the past week or so, every time I go outside there is a certain scent in the air that I think smells almost like baby shampoo, but a bit more flowery. Yesterday I discovered it comes from a small yellow flower (osmanthus or 桂花）that grows everywhere around the city. It's wonderful.
None of the leaves here are turning and I'm wondering if they ever will. I think many of the trees will not lose their leaves, but there are definitely deciduous varieties around the city.
Recently, we were given some time off for the National Day Holiday (国庆节）which commemorates the founding of the PRC on October 1, 1949 and is one of the "golden weeks" along with the Spring Festival (春节）. We had seven days off starting on Friday, October 1. Students here went all over China as well as other countries in Southeast Asia for the holiday, some not returning until yesterday.
I went to Shanghai with two friends, mainly to see the Shanghai world Expo (世博会）。Before going most people I talked to, especially Chinese students only had one comment- that there would be so many people (人山人海！）. One student said that people who don't go to the Expo regret it, but those that do regret it even more.
Well, contrary to popular opinion, I thought the Expo was great. We decided to go at nighttime (post-4PM) because the tickets are cheaper and all of the pavilions are lit up. Walking into the expo was like walking into an amusement park. It occupies a huge area on both sides of the river, but most of the country pavilions are on one side. There is a central axis that's raised above the ground and cuts the area in half. The pavilions are set up roughly geographically, corresponding to their placement on the globe. The Americas and Europe are on the western end and Africa and Asia are on the other side. The Pacific islands have one large pavilion together and Iran and North Korea are off in the corner by themselves. Although there weren't so many people by Chinese standards, by absolute standards, there were still many, many people there. To enter a pavilion, one must wait in line in front of it, sometimes for up to seven or eight hours for the more popular pavilions (China, US, England, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan), but some lesser known countries have no lines at all- an correspondingly less impressive pavilions on the inside. We visited Slovakia, Venezuela, Belarus, Iran, North Korea, perhaps some others I forgot and of course the US. Just after leaving, the rules were changed so nationals of a country need only show their passport to gain admittance into their country's pavilion. Luckily, some students at the Center had worked at the American pavilion, so we only needed to mention their names and we were let in. The inside was mostly a series of three videos about America- how the country's diversity is one of its biggest assets, how we should look to children for inspiration, and how we should focus on building a sustainable future... one of the expo's main ideas is "better city, better life" including building a more sustainable way of life. I then learned that after the expo closes on October 31, all of the pavilions will be destroyed. Yes... I think this is right. Someone has purchased the Taiwanese pavilion, but aside from that, they will be taken apart and something new will be constructed in the area where the Expo one was.
After visiting Shanghai for the first time, my impression is quite positive. There certainly were many people there (people coming to see the expo rather than returning home for the holiday), but the city is very nice. We visited the French Concession, which, for a moment, almost feels like Europe, and the Bund and spent a good deal of time just walking around. It certainly is more expensive than Beijing, but I think it has a more welcoming feeling to it- at least in my opinion. Beijingers seem to always be in a hurry, rushing between things and I didn't really get that sense in Shanghai- maybe it was the holiday or the good weather...
We took the fast train (高铁）back from Shanghai, which takes one hour and fifteen minutes and goes something like 280 km/hr. Nanjing was fairly empty when we returned and it was a welcome change to walk down the sidewalks without dodging motor bikes and trees.
Classes started up again on Friday and Saturday, then we had Sunday off and more classes Monday and now it is Tuesday and we are finally back on a normal schedule of five days on, two days off. Things are picking up in terms of work and it's a bit overwhelming. I have my first paper due for a class next Tuesday and a presentation for one class tomorrow and for another class next Tuesday. Finishing the assigned readings for class is getting a bit easier, but is still difficult. The Chinese professors are also fond of calling students out for answers instead of letting people raise their hands, which makes some classes rather nerve-wracking. My English classes are a nice break from that. More on classes later...

Week one: completed

Hello all! Week one of classes has successfully completed. It's been a little hectic because everyone is allowed to go to as many classes as they want ("shopping week") to better figure our which classes they want to take. A few of the most popular classes were definitely over-enrolled with close to 50 people attending last week. Yesterday at 5:00 they announced (they announce things by putting print-out on a white board- they think sending mass emails is too dangerous) who had been cut out of these classes to accommodate the 30 cap. Who gets cut and who stays in the classes are based solely on the order of signing up online- so if I happen to sign into the course registration page a few seconds earlier then I will be in the class and you won't. I don't think this is the best system, but it is definitely very Chinese. Master's students also get first preference because they have pretty stringent requirements for required courses. Many people are pretty upset about being cut out of classes they wanted to take, so we'll see what happens with that.
Well, I fortunately made it into both of the most sought after classes that I signed up for, so I am taking: Modern Sino-US relations, Anthropology and Chinese Studies, Social Issues of China's Modernization and Macroeconomics. I am also taking Environmental Economics, but will probably audit it if possible. Both the economics classes are taught by the same professor and are in English (yay!). It's very refreshing to go to classes in English and be able to understand everything and focus on the content of the material rather than trying to frantically translate and missing some of the meaning. I was also signed up for Chinese history after 1949, but it turns out there are between 100 and 300 pages of reading every week. In Chinese. I dropped that class. I'm not sure I ever had to do that much reading for one class in English. The professor sat we me at breakfast one morning and asked how I liked the class, etc. I said I enjoyed it, but there were a lot of readings. Then he said, Well isn't that why you came to China?
There are about 18 or so Chinese faculty who each teach one class, and seven international faculty who each teach two classes. Most of the Chinese faculty speak some or a lot of English, but none of the international faculty speak Chinese at all, which, I guess, is an advantage for me as an English speaker with Chinese professors. On the other hand, I think for the most part the Chinese students have better English than the international students' Chinese, mostly because they have been studying English a lot longer than we have been studying Chinese. I think they have more stringent admission requirements as well.
Well, I must do some reading now...toodles.

Happy Birthday Lizzie! And Anna!

Something fishy

Fun story: I just got back from 沃尔玛 (walmart) after successfully finding a few school supplies. While waiting in line I put my basket in the pile of baskets, which was very precariously balanced, and being one who likes to make things orderly I tried to straighten the pile up so the baskets all fit together nicely. However the bottom basket just wouldn't fit so I lifted up the whole pile to try to fix the problem. And then I discovered that the reason it didn't fit was because there was a large fish in the bottom basket. Yes, an entire fish about a foot long sitting in the basket. And then I wondered how long has this fish been here and how long will it sit here until someone starts smelling it and removes it? Ahhh, China. Most large stores have curious piles of abandoned items at the cash register- items that people have decided not to buy right before then pay. Often times there are bags of food or vegetables just left there to wilt, looking sad and uneaten.
Aside from that we've mostly been attending orientation sessions about things like how to sign up for classes online (we need a 2 hour session to explain this because it is evidently very complicated), and how to do a fire drill. The American (international) faculty also introduced all of their classes today, which was nice partly because it was all in English and partly because all of the classes sound really interesting and the faculty as a whole are a very impressive group. I think at least two were involved in writing constitutions for countries such as Kosovo and Albania. I wish I could take more than one class in English.
The fire safety session was fun also: a man from the Nanjing fire department came and spoke about the dangers of fire and showed us multiple video clips of fire disasters that have happened in the past. He was very difficult to understand due to a thick accent, but he did suggest that if we need to jump out of a window we should use an umbrella- Mary Poppins style. After the talking part we did a fire drill and about a dozen soldier-y looking guys came to administer the drill. We all went outside like a normal fire drill, but then they lit a pile of wood and newspaper on fire and had brought put about thirty or forty fire extinguishers for us to practice putting out the fire. The fire went out almost immediately, but they advised us to keep spraying until the stuff in the extinguishers was all gone. When we left there was a small pond of while liquid in the courtyard. Great use of resources.
I finally got a tour of the library as well. It is very nice and new and shiny looking and has many, many books in Chinese and in English and also subscribes to a number of English language magazines and newspapers. There is a wonderful terrace on the fifth floor with benches and tables and nice plants and a nice view of the city. It looks like a good place to study when it doesn't feel like one is swimming when outside.
I am very happy to report that we have access to very modern washing machines and dryers (!), which is a relief in this fog-like humidity. Nothing seems to ever, ever dry here. And it only costs 3RMB for each machine. 好便宜!
Well, we're off the the public security bureau tomorrow morning bright and early to get residence permits, so that's all for now.

Week One in Nanjing

Hello all! I've decided to continue this blog to keep everyone updated to my adventures (and misadventures) over here in China. I will be doing a one year program at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center taking classes in Chinese history, economics, etc. I arrived in Nanjing on Saturday night after a very long and arduous trip that included three different plane flights (Boston to New York, New York to Beijing and finally Beijing to Nanjing). The second, from JFK to Beijing, was on a plane with two levels- first class and business class on the top level and everyone else on the bottom level. And although my ticket led me to believe that the flight from JFK to Nanjing was direct, it was, in fact, not. Upon arriving in Beijing three of us on the flight were continuing on to Nanjing and a woman was waiting to bring us to that flight. It turns out that the flight into Beijing arrived late, so we had to rush through the airport, which was almost completely empty at this late hour, to make it to the flight to Nanjing, which was already boarded an waiting for the three of us. Anyway, it was a long journey that finally ended at about midnight China time.
The Center (as it is called) is located in downtown Nanjing at the corner of two major roads and prominently labeled. It's on the campus of Nanjing University, which I'm told is one of the best universities in China and enrolls around 50,000 students. Right now, it seems like a dauntingly large campus, but it's very pretty and I will post pictures once I have them. The Center has a few buildings of its own- a dormitory building and a very large building of classrooms, offices and faculty apartments. The larger building is newly built and mostly glass on the outside. There is a nice courtyard between the two buildings with a lily pond and koi fish. There are also assorted rooftop terraces throughout the buildings.
Overall, my first impressions of Nanjing are that it is a more manageable size at 3 million people than Beijing at 12 million people. There is also lots of vegetation, which appreciate, and blue-ish skies with real clouds. Nanjing is known as one of the four furnaces of China because of its hot, humid weather during the summer. Indeed, we were told that this summer has been one of the most humid on recent memory, and let me tell you it is very, very humid. Our dorm rooms are air conditioned, but that only seems to make it cold and damp and not remove any of the humidity. The pages of my books have all warped and our bathroom floor seems to be in a constant state of slippery wetness. I'm unclear whether this will change in the near future.
My room is fairly small, with a bed, a desk and shelf complex, a wardrobe like thing built into the wall, and a bathroom. It does have two very large windows that have a nice view onto the road below. My roommate is Chinese and funnily enough went to the Capital University of Economics and Business, where my abroad program was located last year. It seems that there are a fair amount of students who went there on this program.
The first week of our time here is orientation to the Center and classes and Nanjing in general. Yesterday we spent almost the whole day listening to talks about the Center and the computer network and other aspects of life here. About half was in English and half in Chinese. My Chinese abilities are certainly not what they were when I left China last time and I think the first few weeks of classes will be very difficult...we'll see.
Well, it seems to be breakfast time, so I'll sign off now. The cafeteria in the Center serves all three meals a day, but at very restricted times (11:20-12:15 for lunch), so one must be proactive in getting there on time. But, the upside is it that it is extremely cheap. My breakfast yesterday, which was a cup of soy milk, a steamed bun and a bowl of rice porridge was 1.6 RMB or about 25 cents. Lunch was 3 RMB. yum yum.

One of the city gates in Xuanwu Lake park