China China China

It's been two weeks since we got back from New Zealand, and it appears to have been a fortuitous time for us to leave (though not the rest of New Zealanders) because of the recent earthquake in Christchurch and large scale whale beachings
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/21/stranded-whales-die-new-zealand).
All around, not a good week for New Zealand.

But China seems to be doing comparatively well, for the time being at least. The second semester is pretty much in full swing now. We've just finished the second week of classes and lots of indecision I decided to take (in Chinese): East Asian Economies, Religions Systems of China and Environmental Law and (in English): Politics of Rural Development and (auditing) International Dispute Resolution.
The religions class seems especially interesting because the professor is very keen on explaining how and why Chinese people are the way they are now based on the history of religion in the country. The EA Economies professor speaks very quickly and has a bit of an accent, but the material looks interesting, so we'll see.

Nothing especially exciting yet.

I've been walking a lot lately and learned that Nanjing is not really as large a city as I thought it was. Very walkable, especially with the weather warming up a bit. I generally walk to and around Xuanwu Lake which takes a good 2-3 hours, but is nice relief from the streets and excessive amounts of people. Nanjing's city wall surrounds the lake and there are a few spots where one can climb up the wall and walk along the top of it for a marginally better view of the city and the lake. In my opinion, parks are one thing China does right. They still need to work on desserts, public spitting and a few other things, but they have parks down. Xuanwu has nice sidewalks around the whole lake and a few man-made (I think) islands in the middle with lovely little boardwalks and stone walkways all around. I often go walking to the lake at night, when it's even calmer and fewer people try to talk to you or shout laowai 老外 (foreigner). It's nice. And all the trees bordering the lake are lit up with different lights, as are the boardwalks. Recently, because of the new year, there have been an abundance of tacky rabbit decorations (it's the year of the rabbit!) which detract from the calming lake atmosphere, but one can't expect any less from China. Tackiness is rampant here.

I apologize for my lack of ability in making these pictures and text more visually appealing in layout (also I finally figured out how to get my iPod's photos on to my laptop, so these were all taken with and it and hence not as high quality as ones taken with my camera)... I wanted to show some more day-to-day photos. The first one is from our field trip to the dump last semester in Social Issues class. It was likely the most foul smelling place I've ever been, which was made sadder by the fact that there were dozens of people picking through the piles of trash looking for recyclables or usable items and exposing themselves to who know what. Stray dogs were also running around all over the place (rabies??).

The second picture is pig mantou 馒头 (steamed buns) that were most adorable. One of the main tourist attractions in Nanjing is the Confucius Temple (夫子庙）which is a small temple surrounded by scores of restaurants and gift shops and places that generally suck money out of you.

The third picture of the delicious looking food is 干锅 or literally "dry pot/bowl" and it's divine. It's a large bowl filled with green peppers, onions, chicken, potatoes, and rice crispy things and all cooked with delicious spices and oil. So good.

The next picture's food is not quite so good, but a good example of the cafeteria's fare. And it's a lot cheaper. That one was probably around 3 kuai or 40 cents. they have generally the same food every day, but it's reliably mediocre and clean.

The penguin poster is a part of a series of posters I've seen around the city, especially in the subway stations promoting "green thinking" and basically spewing facts about environmental degradation in China and the rest of the world. This one says talks about the rate of global temperature increase and melting of the polar ice caps. Some of the other posters are a bit accusatory and extreme, but I think they are definitely beneficial and people probably need to be shocked a bit.

The lat picture is Xuanwu Lake at night with the trees lit up.