Good-bye Beijing!

Greetings from Beijing Capital Airport!

Yes, the time has come for me to bid Beijing good-bye and head back to the United States. Roughly nine or so months ago, I came to China with with just my luggage, curiosity and no idea of what to expect of my time here. While there were times it seemed like today couldn't come fast enough, my time here has indeed flown by very quickly. From the good, to the bad, to the downright perplexing, Beijing has provided with a plethora of experiences and it's been an unforgettable ride that I don't regret at all.

For my beloved (albeit few) loyal blog followers, don't you fret. This is not the end of the blog (yet), I still have several posts I want to write and many pictures to post. It's just that now I will be blogging form the US and will no longer have to fight the Great Firewall on a daily basis.

Take care!

And for those of you reading this back in the San Francisco Bay Area, see you soon!!

22 years ago this past weekend,

...this was the scene on Chang'an Avenue in Beijing, on the way to Tian'anmen Square.

Twenty-two years ago, when I was just a year old, government-ordered tanks rolled into Tian'anmen Square to clear out the hundred of mostly student protesters that had gathered there calling for a government reforms and democracy. What started over a month before with peaceful protests ended with hundreds dead and even more hurt and wounded. The actual number of deaths that occurred at the square or as a result of violence at the Tian'anmen Square will probably never be actually known.

In today's word with the passing of time and China's rising prominence in the international arena, it's easy to forget this tragic anniversary and what all the protesters so bravely stood up for. I'm even ashamed to admit that this year, despite being in Beijing (or perhaps because I was in Beijing, where anything about this incident is kept very hush-hush), even I forgot myself this year on June 4th.

While the happenings on June 4th to some people is just another date in the world's long history, to Chinese people everywhere, this date of a very tragic importance. To many, the events June 4th is a continuing reminder of the failure of the Chinese Communist Party to rule in the best interests of its citizens and it's complete disregard for the value of human life.

On a more personal note, I know if it weren't for the events on June 4th, 1989 in Tian'anmen Square, my life would be very different today. In fact, I might be writing this in Chinese and not English had it not been for that day.

Nonetheless, if you're reading this, take the time to please pause and remember the many that died that fateful day in Beijing. Their heroism shouldn't be forgotten.

Oh, Irony.

Somewhere between prepping for my oral final for my conversation class and prepping for finals in general, I lost my voice. On the day I have to give my oral final.

Oh the irony.

(It went okay though, I think.)

Wish me luck on the rest of my finals!

Blogging Hiatus

As my last two posts (read them here and here) indicate, recently there have been a rash of Internet 'problems' plaguing Mainland Chinese netizens. This combined with the fact that finals are quickly approaching again, and that I'll be leaving China in less than a month, means this blog will most likely be on hiatus until I return to the United States.

I know you're all very sad to read that last statement, but don't fret, I will continue to write posts and post them when I can. It's just that recently this has proven to be more and more of challenge with the Internet behaving the way it is.

Also, I have a lot of photos I want to share with you, but considering most days I'm just happy to be able to access my e-mail account, those will definitely have to wait until I return to the US & American high-speed Internet.

So while I'm taking a break now, stay tuned for lots more to come later.

Also, here are three more stories on China's Internet crackdown. Even if you're not that interested in the subject of Internet censorship in China, you should read them for a good laugh at the irony of the situation:

• "Father of Great Firewall" blames cost-cutting measures for recent Internet problems in China
• Shoegate: Students pelt "Father of the Great Firewall" at Wuhan University
• Reaction to 'Shoegate'

Theories abound for overseas web access troubles

Here's another article on the current Internet situation in China, this time from The Global Times.

My favorite portion of the article is on the second page, towards the end. It reads,

"An anonymous official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology declined to explain why foreign websites were frequently inaccessible in a telephone interview with the Global Times, and instead urged users to 'check their own technology problems and with the websites' servers on [sic] the first place'"

Hahaha. Sure, China, whatever you say.

For the record, I have checked every possible source for my Internet problems and every single time I'm lead back to just one possible answer.

Clearly, subtlety has never been China's strong part.

Suspicious Internet issues

Since a week and a half ago, my building has been have some "interesting" Internet issues. If you've been in contact with me this past week, it's likely I told you or even experienced firsthand how unstable my connection has been.

At times, the Internet connection would just shut itself down completely. Other times, the Internet connection was fine (it was even fast), but all I could go on were the major Chinese websites, such as Tabao, Baidu and Youku, but no international websites whatsoever. Even more perplexingly, there were even times where it seemed completely normal (for China).

It has been so fickle, that I have come up with my own eight-level system of classifying my Internet connectivity based on what programs can connect and what websites I can log on to. (I won't bore you you with the actual eight levels I came up with though.)

Obviously, the most annoying thing about not having a reliable Internet connection was not being able to get into my e-mail. Though Gmail has been blocked several times before, normally I had other ways to access it. However, last week proved to be a real challenge.

So far this week (knock on wood), the Internet seems a bit better. It's still rather slow and finicky when I try to gone on some international websites and particularly Gmail, but I can deal with it. Hopefully it stays this way. That's all I ask for.

For some more information on the Internet issues currently facing Internet users in China, take a look at the below article form the China Digital Times. Pay special attention to the latter half of the article, since that's what largely seems to be what's happening in my my case.

Unfortunately, I could only give you a screen print of the article, so it maybe a bit blurry. Click on the image to enlarge & read.

Click to enlarge
Article courtesy of the China Digital Times

For more information, there seem to be many other articles on the topic currently on the China Digital Times. I'd normally post the links myself, however my Internet seems to go down for several minutes each time I try to log on to the CDT website.

That's not obviously suspicious at all. Ha.

Sidenote: In attempt to inform students about what is going on with our Internet connections, BNU actually posted notices in the international student dorms. Normally, notices are only posted in Chinese (after all, you are here to study Chinese), but this time it's actually in Chinese, Korea and English. In the notice it informs students that the connectivity issues are beyond the scope of BNU's tech support and that we should always comply with China's Internet laws and not visit illegal websites. Clearly BNU wanted to get the word out to all students regardless of our the level of our Chinese comprehension and discourage us from bypassing the Great Firewall.

Walkalator

Without a doubt, the best thing about being in Beijing this past year has been the to opportunity to reconnect and see family and family friends that I haven't seen in many years, not only in Hong Kong but also in Beijing.

One of these family friends I've reconnected with is the eldest daughter of my parents' close friends, named Ivy Tsui . When my family still  lived Hong Kong, she and I were neighbors. We played together often, and attended the same preschool.

Now, Ivy is a contemporary dancer based in Hong Kong. However she is currently in Beijing for a short while dancing with a company that brings together Hong Kong and mainland China dancers together.

As a result, I've had the great opportunity to two separate contemporary dance performances that she's been a part of since coming to Beijing. The performances (along with Ivy herself) have been great and eye-opening. I'm sure if it weren't for Ivy's participation in the shows, I would've never gone to see the shows on my own.

Below are two site-specific dance (dance performances outside of the traditional theater setting) videos that featuring Ivy and her fellow dancers. The videos and dances themselves were directed by Ivy's good friend, Alan Wong and were filmed in at the Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station.

If you have a free moment, the videos are definitely worth a look!

Enjoy!

Wu Guanzhong

Since coming to Beijing, I've been trying to broaden my horizons and enjoy the burgeoning art scene here. I'm hardly an art expert in any sense or really that knowledgeable about the art scene in Beijing or anywhere else for that matter, but I have quite enjoyed discovering and looking at art not only in museums, but in the art galleries around the city. Though originally finding and visiting galleries at first was a means to an end to find something simply to do, it's proven to become a bit of hobby during my time here.

Granted, during my time in Paris, I was also very interested art. How could you not be, after all? It's Paris! With so many amazing and renowned pieces showcased all over Paris, it'd be a shame to not enjoy and appreciate it. However, unlike in Paris, where my obsession was visiting every museum I possibly could, visiting galleries in Beijing is a definitely a different experience (not necessarily for either better or worse).

One of the painters I've discovered while in China is Wu Guanzhong (吴冠中). Wu Guanzhong was a very renowned contemporary Chinese artist who blended Western techniques with Chinese brush painting techniques to create paintings that I find amazing. I particularly like his landscape paintings, especially those of the villages in Southern China.

Now here's a humorous story for you relating to Wu Guanzhong:

Last week, I was out in the 798 art district to see a completely separate photography exhibit, when I happened to stumble upon a gallery with many Wu paintings (actually, most likely reproductions) on display and of course, I walked in to take a better the works on display. As it turns out, the gallery had many Wu Guanzhong paintings/reproductions for sale, hence the exhibition. While I roamed around the exhibition, one of the gallery curators came up to me, started talking to me about how the paintings and how I could also choose form a catalog of Wu's other works to purchase, if I liked.

Apparently, to this curator, I looked like I had enough money to spend on purchasing a reproduction (the prices all seemed to start at 1,500 RMB and upwards). Thoroughly amused, I chuckled, smiled and politely took the curator that I unfortunately did not have the money to invest in a piece of art.
Never in my life would I think that someone would approach me about buying art, thinking that I even remotely had the money to purchase any. Even though the paintings/reproductions actually weren't that expensive as far as art goes, I still couldn't afford it. But I did like that the curator thought I could. Haha.
Anyways, if you have time and are curious, take the time to look up Wu Guanzhong. I think you'll like his paintings as well.


Articles on Wu Guanzhong:

• The Telegraph obituary (Includes an interesting portion on Wu's life during and after the Cultural Revolution)
  
• NY Times obituary
• Gallery of works

Yabaolu: Russian-town

Last October, I posted a few pictures from an area of Beijing that I half-jokingly called 'Russian-town,' where shop and restaurant signs seemed boast more Russian than Chinese. Although I termed the area 'Russian-town' as a sort of joke or tease, there is a relatively large Russian population in Beijing and the rest of China. In Beijing, much of the Russian population is centered around the Yabaolu area

Yesterday, The Global Times online Metro Beijing edition ran an interesting story on the large Russian population in Beijing. If you're curious to learn more about the Russian population in Beijing (like I am), you can read the article here.

Please note that the term 'Russian' both in the aforementioned article and in terms of the 'Russian' population of Beijing doesn't only refer to citizens to modern-day Russia, but also includes citizens of countries that used to be apart of the USSR, including (but not limited to) Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, etc.

Anyways, I just thought I'd share that article with you since it related back to something I posted a while back.

Happy Wednesday.

More Wine in a Can

Yes, that's right. Apparently one wasn't enough. There are actually different varieties of wine in a can in China.

May I introduce to you, "Sparkling Chardonnay" in a can's sister, "Sparkling Rose" in a can?

Classy, I know.

The Road of Rejuvenation: a lesson in Chinese history, according to the CPC

As I mentioned in my previous post about my visit to the Chinese National Museum, the one of the main exhibits, entitled "The Road to Rejuvenation," chronicles Chinese modern history from 1840 onwards. However, to call it it an historically accurate exhibit would be quite a stretch, a point highlighted in a New York Times article entitled, "At China's Grand New Museum, History Toes the Party Line."

Now of course, in general, national history museums of any country, not just China, are not the best places to go when searching for the most accurate historical accounts of a nation's history. However, the exhibit on modern Chinese history seems to take historical revisionism and blatant pro-Chinese Communist Party propaganda to a new level.

Inside the exhibit, which is aptly named, "The Road of Rejuvenation," you can find plenty of flaunting of what the CPC (the Communist Party of China) considers it's greatest achievements, including mementos from China's first voyage into space in 2008. But you'd be hard pressed to find any actual mention of any of their failures, such as The Great Leap Forward and the resulting famine, Tian'anmen Square Massacre or the Cultural Revolution.

Perhaps the best part about this very biased exhibit however, is the very bombastic language used in their explanations. Many of the statements in the summaries and captions seem straight out of a bad Communist Party propaganda novel. Needless to say, I found many of them highly amusing and almost made my two hour wait in line worth it.

Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead so I have no (good) pictures to share with you, but I had my cell phone camera to help me record some of crazy things written in the exhibit.

Below are some quotes from the exhibit. I think there are some real gems in there and you'll find them as amusing as I did. Enjoy!

• "The Chinese nation is a great nation whose people are industrious, courageous, intelligent and peace-loving and have made indelible contributions to the progress of human civilization."

• "'The Road of Rejuvenation' is a permanent exhibition showcasing the explorations made by the Chinese people form all walks of life who, after being reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society..., rose in resistance against humiliation and misery, and tried in every way possible to rejuveniate the nation"

• "Today, the Chinese nation is standing firm in the east, facing a brilliant future of great rejuvenation. The long-cherished dream and aspiration of the Chinese people will surely come to reality."

• "...the imperial powers descended on China like a swarm of bees, looting our treasures and killing our people."

The Chinese National Museum

As I briefly mentioned in my last post about Labor Day here in China, I had last Friday off in honor of the holiday. Since traveling in China during national holidays seems to more of a lesson futility due to the large crowds of tourists everywhere, I decided to stay in Beijing and visit some places I wanted to see before I leave. Included on that list, was the newly-reopened Chinese National Museum (中国国家博物馆).

After undergoing over three years of renovations, the National Museum recently re-opened after years of arguing and revisions. Historically, the current site of the National Museum was home to two separate museums, the Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution; they were combined in 2003 to make up the Chinese National Museum. In an effort to boost China's (specifically, Beijing's) international standing, the Chinese government decided it was time to renovate and bring the museum up to par (or at least, what they felt like was up to par).

The original plan was to have the museum completely redone, renovated and opened for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, however due to years of arguing and disagreement over the museum's content and endless revisions on the interior design, was not finished in time. Nor was it finished in time for it's second hoped-for end date, which was supposed to coincide the 60th Anniversary of Communist rule on October 1, 2009. Finally, the National Museum reopened just this past March after years and years of delay.

Since 2008, China's museums have gradually begun waiving their entrance fee, in hopes of attracting more visitors. While I appreciate free museum admission as much as anyone, in the case of the National Museum, this seems to have backfired.

Happy Labor Day!

If you haven't looked at a calendar yet today, today is May 1st, which for China and many other countries is Labor Day, or in Chinese, 劳动节(láodòng jié). Since the holiday falls on a Sunday this year, Chinese people have tomorrow off too. (I don't have the day off however, since for scheduling purposes BNU decided to give us April 29th off instead of May 2nd)

For obvious reasons, the United States does not celebrate Labor Day on May 1st. (If you don't know why, do a quick internet search on "International Worker's Day.") But, since I'm in China, I hope you have a fantastic May 1st, regardless if May 1st has any significance (labor-related or otherwise) to you.

Now for some pictures I took almost a month ago at the Ming Dynasty City Wall Relics Park and Southeast Corner Watchtower.

Side note: I know, I know. I've been slacking on the blogging recently. My sincerest apologies. I know I still have a ton of pictures to go through from Hong Kong and posts to write about that. I blame the weather. It's impossible to stay inside when the weather's been so great these past few weeks. I guess it's probably a good thing I attended college in New York and not somewhere with a warm climate. Haha. On the upside though, it does mean I do have a lot of blogging material just waiting for me to write about. So stay tuned!

Best of intentions, the most misguided of results

If the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education (or as I will refer to it, the BMCE) has anything to do with it, soon all college students at Beijing universities will be required to take a course entitled, "Mental health for College Students" with a expanded section on 'relationship skills.'

According to the BMCE's plan, students would take a 16 to 18 hour class for one course credit. The course itself would cover nine chapters and follow a recently re-drafted syllabus outlined by the BMCE.

Upon hearing this news, I didn't know whether to laugh at be absurdity of it all or shake at my head at just shake my head at how misguided this entire idea seems.

After all, if love and relationships could be simply defined and outlined in a textbook, there wouldn't be millions upon millions of books, poems, songs, blogs, and even Twitter tags on the subject matter. But while many may wish it were so, relationships and love do not follow any set path nor do they they all fit in a certain mold. Perhaps if it did, then we could all take a class in high school, be done with it and literally move on with our lives.

Unfortunately, that's not how it works. What works for one person does not necessarily work for the next person. In fact, I'd personally argue that love's ability to morph and change according to the people and circumstances around it---much like a chameleon---is what makes it so mysterious and popular topic for literature, music and the like. With this in mind, I cannot see how anyone or any group of people could possibly outline in nine short chapters on what is is the 'right' and the 'wrong' way to handle relationships.

Ah, the things I much rather be doing

..instead of taking midterms.

Splashing around with water with two of
my little cousins.
(Picture courtesy of Maia & Raymond Siu)

To see more photos of those two hard at play, see their blog at http://rayandmaia.blogspot.com/

Oh, hello again study bunny.

Yes, it's midterms again. That means radio silence on this blog until at least Friday, when that black midterm cloud stops hanging over my head.

Wish me luck!

Ducklings and Chicks for Sale!

You can almost anything you need being sold on the streets of Beijing, including---but hardly limited to---fruit, notebooks, DVDs, and T-shirts. In the spring, this apparently also entails puppies, chicks, ducklings, baby rabbits and small gerbils/guinea pigs/hamsters. 

Yes, in the box are live chicks & ducklings being sold.
Haidian District, Beijing

I have to confess though, the chicks and ducklings are quite adorable. Not enough for me to buy one though (not to mention that I have no place to keep it).

There are a lot of things I can't find in China,

but Groupon apparently isn't one of them.

Taken at the Jishuitan Subway Station, Line 2

Now if only they had groupons for flights home...

The Return of the Horses

For those of you who were afraid that horse transportation was slowly disappearing, don't fret. The horse-drawn wagon selling industry is still alive in Beijing.

Haidan District, Beijing, China

It's a sign that the weather's warming up again and spring has returned when the horse-drawn wagons return to the streets selling fruit.

Spring has arrived!

While I still despise winter, the best part of living in places with a 'real' winter (meaning a place with daily below freezing temperatures and snow), is joy of walking outside one day in March/April/May and realizing that spring has finally arrived.

Well, that day arrived sometime last week in Beijing. Instead of the sad, barren, empty trees I'm used to see lining the streets, now there are trees with little specs of green dotting the branches and others have even blossomed overnight.

Since this weekend is a long weekend (I have Monday & Tuesday off for Qingming Festival, the festival during which you traditionally pay your respects to your ancestors), today I went over to Yuyuantan Park to view their famed cherry blossoms. These cherry blossom trees, like the ones in Washington, D.C., were a gift from Japan to China as a offer of peace and friendship. Looking at the blossoms, it undeniable spring is here, and hopefully to stay for a bit.

I hope an equally pretty spring has arrived for all of you as well. And if it hasn't, I hope it comes soon!

Shikumen Houses

In case I gave you the wrong impression of Shanghai in my last post, Shanghai, despite being a very modern city, does have older parts as well. Aside from the instantly recognizable Bund, another characteristic of Shanghai's by-gone years are it's shikumen houses.

Shikumen houses are a specific style of housing built in the latter half of the 19th century in the foreign settlements to accommodate the influx of refugees from the neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Literally translated, the term "shikumen" (石库门) means "stone gate," which refers to the stone gates and black doors that were the cornerstone of shikumen architecture.

From the exterior, many of the shikumen houses look very Western in the sense that many incorporate architectural elements more traditionally found in Western cities into the buildings, such as it's namesake stone gates, and verandas. However, behind the gates most of the homes are still laid out in a more traditionally Chinese style that revolves around the central courtyard. In some ways, this mix, at least in my opinion, is the perfect mix of the blended Western and Chinese cultural atheistic that is so very unique to Shanghai.

While we were in Shanghai, Leslie & I spent a decent amount of time wandering around the shikumen houses in the older part of Shanghai. Although the shikumen houses (like the hutongs in Beijing) are constantly under the threat of a wrecking ball, there are still some areas with shikumen houses left, which I strongly believe need to be preserved. While the shikumen houses may not be glamorous or stunning like the Bund, they are also a vital part of Shanghai's heritage that is worth preserving.

Now for some pictures:

For more information on Shanghai's shikumen houses:   http://www.shanghaiholiday.net/shikumen/

Shanghai, Take 2

Stop number three (number four for Leslie) on my winter break travel itinerary was Shanghai. Although I had been to Shanghai previously (see posts here and here), I was excited to return and explore it on my own more thoroughly.

Upon arriving in Shanghai and making our way over our hostel, it was immediately apparent that we were back in the big city. Instead of the more laid-back, quiet(er) pace of Qingdao and Hangzhou, in Shanghai we were immediately greeted with giant crowds, honking cars and a large rush of people going in all directions. I distinctly remember turning around and saying to Leslie "We're definitely back in the city now."

Though it's apparent immediately that Shanghai is a very metropolitan city, I think after spending several months in Beijing it's much more striking just how modern and cosmopolitan it actually is. In comparison, Beijing looks like the older, more worn-down sibling of the younger, more polished Shanghai. While the best phrases to describe Beijing probably are historical and politically significant, the words cosmopolitan and modern probably best describe Shanghai.

In some ways, the difference between Shanghai and Beijing almost remind me of New York and Washington, D.C. It's undeniable that politically, D.C. is a very important city. The decisions made in D.C. affect not only the people of the United States, but often the lives of many people outside of it's borders. That being said though, Washington, while it does have it's own local scene, does not have the cultural pull in the United States that New York does. Washington makes the laws, but arguably, New York is the cultural (not to mention financial) capital of the United States.

Likewise, in China, Beijing is undoubtedly the political and historical capital of the country. However, if you look at art and lifestyle trends, I'd say the majority of the taste-makers are centralized in Shanghai. Not to mention that like New York, Shanghai is also the financial capital of China. So while Beijing dictates the rules by which Chinese people abide by, Shanghai tells them how their lives should look, feel, hear, taste and probably even smell.

Of course with that being said, not all of Shanghai is the modern, glitzy city that most people think of right away when think of Shanghai. There are definitely old parts as well, but I'm leaving that for another post. So stay tuned.

 

More pictures on Angela Photo Musings

• Shanghai: At Night 
• Shanghai: Pudong 
• Shanghai: Shikumen 
• Shanghai: Taikung Lu
• Shanghai: Yuyuan Bazaar
• Shanghai: Misc.

Guess what today is...

Opening day for the MLB! (That's the United States Major League Baseball for those of you not in the know.)

Okay, okay, technically opening day was yesterday (March 31st) but since China's a day ahead of the US, it feels like today is opening day.

I may not be a huge baseball fan or the most knowledgeable baseball aficionado, but even I'm excited for a new season of baseball. Plus the beginning of baseball season signals the start of warmer weather and (eventually) summer, two of my favorite things. I can't wait to get home and hopefully go to a Giants game soon.

So on that note, GO GIANTS!
 

A funny thing happened on the way to the train station..

[I know it's been a while since I've posted anything about my travels back in January and February. You probably thought I forgot about it. Rest assured, I didn't. I've just been busy. Now back to posts on my winter break travels.]

In the last post about my trip, Leslie & I were in Hangzhou. Our plan was to travel from Hangzhou to Shanghai via the high-speed bullet train that connects the two cities, however we were only semi-successful in completing this goal. However, before we get to that, I have a funny little story about our cab ride from our hostel in Hangzhou to the Hangzhou train station.

As I mentioned, Leslie and I took a cab from the area our hostel was in to the train station. Since our hostel was located off a pedestrian street, we had to first walk out to a larger intersection with cars on it to flag our cab. After a short while, we were able to hail a cab, get in and let the cab driver know that we wanted to go to the train station. The driver, a woman, nods her head and says okay and takes off in the direction of the train station.

After driving a minute or two, we stop at a red light and the driver begins speaking to me. At first, I thought she was perhaps speaking to someone on the phone via a bluetooth or a hands-free device (that's what New York cab drivers are always doing), however after a split second I realize she's talking to me.

She asks me if I would mind and if we weren't pressed for time (we weren't), if she could stop the cab at the convenience store across the intersection so she could run in and use the restroom. She went on explain that at the train station, there's no place for her to pull over and run to the restroom. Since Leslie and I were in no rush, and I understood her urgency, I said it was fine (she also promised to stop the meter so we wouldn't be charged for her bathroom break).

During this entire interaction, the cab driver was incredibly polite and gracious. It just further shows how nice the people of Hangzhou were to use. However, since this entire conversation was in Mandarin, I can only imagine what Leslie first thought when the driver pulled over & ran out of the cab towards the restroom at the convenience store. After I explained it to her though, we had a good laugh.

It's definitely a good anecdote of our trip though.

Now back to the trains. Earlier, I mentioned that Leslie and I wanted to take the high-speed bullet train (the G train0 that allows you to travel a distance of roughly 190 km (118 miles) in a mere 45 minutes. However, since the train ticket agents we purchased the tickets from in Beijing weren't the most helpful nor clued-in of train agents, we ended up on the second-fastest train (the D train) that takes you the same distance in 1 1/2 hours, which is still impressively quick if you think about it.

D Train

Interior of the D train

Regardless, Leslie and I got to Shanghai just fine, despite a mess up about which Shanghai train station we were going to. (The previously mentioned clueless train ticket agents had said we were going to the Shanghai South Train station, but we ended up at the Shanghai Hongqiao Airport train station. Good thing Shanghai's metro system is very thorough.)

For those of you fretting about our missed opportunity, don't worry. Leslie & I made up for it by take the Maglev train, a high-speed electro-magnetic train that goes from Shanghai out to Pudong Airport, when we were leaving Shanghai. Although on our trip to the airport the train speed only climbed up to a "measly" 289 mph (465 km/hr), during it's fastest runs (which are normally in the afternoon), it can go up to 315 mph (507 km/hr).

Maglev Train

Shame on you PKU

Recently, Peking University (北京大学, or as it's more commonly known 北大) announced they were going to expand their program of offering "consultations" to students they deemed "problematic."

Included on the list of students that should receive such counseling are students who have academic problems, come from poor backgrounds, are addicted to the Internet and have "radical" ideas.

What exactly consistutes "radical ideas" is beyond me though. I thought college and  university was the best time for students to broaden their thinking and challenge their beliefs.

It's one thing to offer students support should they choose to seek it, it's another thing to single some students out as "problematic."

All I have to say is, Peking Univeristy, being the prestigious university you are, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

The Telegraph (UK): Peking University to screen students for 'radical thoughts'
China.org.cn (China): PKU to expand problem student consultations

For the record, I'm a student at Beijing Normal University (北京师范大学), not Peking University. It's probably a good thing too, or else I'd probably deemed a problem student as well. At least I can say I'm American and use that as an excuse.

Thank you, thank you

When I wrote the two earlier posts on marriage in China (read part 1 here and part 2 here), I didn't really think anyone was actually going to click through and read the entire thing (aside from my parents, who are semi-obligated to read this blog). However, as the responses I've received prove, I was quite mistaken.


So I just wanted to write a quick thank you to those of you who read those posts on marriage. A special thank you also goes out to those of you who took the time to respond with their own thoughts on the subject matter. Feedback is always welcome because it often gives me a new perspective to chew on.

Any comments you have on my posts are welcome. And if you prefer a less public forum for your comments, feel free send me an e-mail.

Also, look forward to more blog posts (and photos!) from my winter break travels that should be going up soon.

China, why must you make my life difficult?

Fine China. Block Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Blogger and other random sites you deem as a "threat." I don't agree with you, but I'm in your country, I'll play by your rules.

But, don't block my e-mail. That's unnecessary. Or make it practically impossible to load. That's just obnoxious.

Good thing there are ways around the Great Firewall.

Lovely

Meet "widespread dust's" meaner, grittier sibling, "blowing dust."

Note also it's blowing at 29 mph (~46.7 km/hour). And yes, you can feel/taste this dust in your mouth and lungs. Fantastic.

Clearly, Beijing's weather isn't very hospitable.

Ready, Set...Marry?? Part II

Marriage. I don't think I've given the topic of marriage much serious thought as I have this past year. Granted, this is perhaps at least in part due the fact that more and more people I know from high school and college are getting engaged/ married and the age gap between those I know who are engaged/married has become increasing smaller, or in some cases, non-existent.

Taikang Lu, Shanghai

Not to mention that I've recently celebrated another birthday (hello, 23) and while I'm still very young, I have to admit it doesn't sound nearly as young as when you say you're 20/21/22.

But mostly, I think the real reason why this subject has really pestering me lately is largely due to the environment around me. As I mentioned in the blog post before this, "Ready, Set..Marry?" China has quite the obsession with young people getting married, particularly before the age of 30.

Even in the classroom setting, this mentality has wormed itself into the curriculum. I remember last semester, the topic of marriage was often used in examples explaining grammatical structures and concepts. For instance, when explaining the term 连 (lián), which grammatically is used similarly to the word "even" or "already," our teacher used the example of "她连45岁没有结婚, " （tā lián 45 suì hái méi jiéhūn） which translates to "She is 45 years old and still hasn't married."

Another time, while trying to explain the grammatical usage of the word 才(cái), which is roughly used similarly to the word "finally" in English, our text book stated, "她35岁才结婚" (tā 35 suì cái jiéhūn.), which translates to "She finally married at 35 years old." Why the teachers and the textbooks couldn't come up with different examples using time or meals or anything else is beyond me.

Ready, Set...Marry??

Some days here in China, I feel like I'm living in the midst of a Jane Austen novel. No, not in the nightly-balls-and-parties-and-touring-grand-English-estates sense, but more in the you-must-get-married-by-X-age sense. As much as I love reading a good Jane Austen novel occasionally, living in a what I like to call a marriage-obsessed culture is a different story altogether. 

To call China a marriage-obsessed culture is not far-fetched. There is a lot of emphasis here on finding the 'right' person, getting married and starting a family, particularly on females here. In fact, the term for an unmarried woman over the age of 27 is 剩女(shèng nǚ) meaning leftover woman. No, I am not kidding, though I wish I was. (If you think 27 is rather young to be disparaging over a lack of husband, at least one of the articles I read on "sheng nu" alleged that a girl becomes a "sheng nu" at after the very young age of 25. Ack.)

The emphasis on marriage is so great that during the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year, many parents and singles headed to the temple fairs for the sole purpose of trying to find a potential marriage match. At the Beijing International Sculpture Park, an estimated 50,000+ people visited the park's love-matching event where parents and singles could consult relationship experts, find potential matches and look at the estimated 5,000 personal advertisements posted by other people looking for a potential partner.

Across town, a similar event at Ditan Park averaged 150,000 visitors per day to it's seven-day match-making event. Outside of the event, more desperate parents unwilling to pay the even entrance fee held signs touting their offspring's accomplishments in hopes of finding them a good match.

In Shanghai, the match-making fervor isn't limited to the Spring Festival. Every weekend, in People's Park in the center of Shanghai, parents gather craning their necks to look at papers posted on bushes touting a potential match's good attributes including background, education and physical traits, all in hopes that the next meeting they arrange for their son/daughter will lead to a good marriage.

The pressure to get married isn't just limited to the heterosexual set either. In Shanghai, in contrast to the open marriage market in People's Park, there is also a thriving fake-marriage market, in which lesbians and gays gather in hopes of finding someone to enter into a fake marriage with. 

Now that's something I've never seen forecasted before...

Who knew "widespread dust" was considered a weather phenomenea...

Good thing I don't have allergies.

US Passport Ownership by State

As I was going through the blogosphere the other day, I ran across this infographic on Gadling that breaks down United States passport ownership state by state. I thought it was interesting so I'm posting it here. I'm proud to say that I'm from a state where over 60% of the population owns a passport and not from...oh, let's say Mississippi.

http://blog.cgpgrey.com/how-many-americans-have-a-passport-the-percentages-state-by-state/

With saying that though, I do realize that passport ownership is also dependent on wealth and opportunity to travel abroad. If you have no opportunities nor the money to afford to go abroad, then there's no need for you to apply and pay for a passport. Despite what it may seem, there were plenty of Americans where going abroad is only a pipe dream.

So on that note, I'm grateful to have this opportunity to live abroad here in Beijing, even if it means dealing with squat toilets.

Quilted pajamas, the newest fashion craze?

As we were making our way to our hostel in Hangzhou for the first time after just arriving, Leslie and I noticed an older woman walking by dressed in a matching quilted pajama set. We thought it was a bit odd to go out dressed like that, but we figured she was probably just running a short errand and she was the only one dressed like that. After all, who are we to judge another person's fashion sense? (Not to mention, I've been guilty of running to the store in sweats in the past as well.)

However, before the day even ended, we realized this 'trend' was not limited to just one person. It was actually pretty common to see people walk around (men, women, old, young and children alike), do their shopping and errands in these quilted pajama sets. It seemed to be quite the trend actually.

I think in total, by the time we left Hangzhou, we counted somewhere between 30 to 40 different people wearing these odd quilted pajama sets. Forty may not sound like a lot, until you realize we were really only in Hangzhou for two days.

Although, I will concede one thing. Despite being a bit odd to where outside of the house, those pajama sets did look warm.  Here are some pictures so you can judge for yourself.

Old Hangzhou

Near our fantastic hostel in Hangzhou, was an older portion of the city where many older locals still resided. As we meandered through the area, we actually found a small food market area where all the locals go daily to shop for fresh vegetables, fruit and other edible items for that's day meals.

Whenever I travel, I love to browse around the local food markets. Markets always are the best place to observe the local life, so I was happy that we found one by accident in Hangzhou.

The market that we ran into in Hangzhou was half indoors and half outdoors. At this market, you could find anything you might need to make a meal--vegetables, fruit, meat, dried goods, spices, fish and live poultry.

Yes, I said live poultry. Chinese people like to get their food as fresh as possible, meaning it's best if you actually met the chicken you're going to eat while it's still alive. Much of the fish being sold as well at the market was also still swimming.

For me, coming from my Chinese background seeing all the live poultry and fish didn't really bother me. After all, this is basically the way it's been done for years in China and in the US, my parents still prefer to buy live fish as opposed to frozen fish to cook.

But for Leslie, I think she might have been a bit startled to see just how much freshness really mattered to Chinese home cooks. She was also quite interested to see the vendors selling all the different soy products from tofu to bean curd sheets to dried tofu.What can I say? Tofu is really what cheese is like to the West. While cheese in the West comes in many shapes in sizes, in China, the tofu possibilities are seemingly endless.

Pictures from the older part of Hangzhou shall now commence forth, including one of (the woman we dubbed as) the tofu lady.

 

Tofu lady

More pictures on Angela Photo Musings.

Speaking of snow

Look at the snowy scene I awoke to this morning:

You can't really tell from the picture above, but it was snowing as I took this picture.

It's supposed to snow off and on all weekend here in Beijing. While I'm not exactly thrilled---winter's not exactly my favorite season---I know any snow, however little, is a relief to the farmers and government who are worried the looming (very likely) possibility of a drought this year.

So bring it on, snow. Show us what you've got.

Hangzhou, Re-visited

Stop number two on my winter break travels (stop number three for Leslie) was Hangzhou.

If you're unfamiliar with Hangzhou, it's a city roughly 190 km (about 118 miles) southwest of Shanghai. For many years, Hangzhou's famed West Lake (西湖) made it a popular vacationing spot. Just this year, the New York Times placed Hangzhou in the 33rd spot on their list of "The 41 Places to Go in 2011." It's also now the home to Baidu, China's answer to Google and many of China's other high-tech firms.

As the title of this post suggests, this was my second time to Hangzhou. The first time I was there was with my parents just this past September before my semester started here in Beijing. However, that first time was with a tour so I didn't really get any chance at all to explore on my own, so I was happy to return and get a chance to walk around on my own.

The first we noticed when we landed in Hangzhou (we flew down from Qingdao), was that there was snow on the ground!

Okay, so I realize that doesn't sound so shocking to many of you. But you have to understand that at this point, Beijing & most of the northern China hadn't seen any rain/precipitation since October, much less snow. So when we got to Hangzhou, which was noticeably warmer than Beijing and Qingdao (since it's farther south), we were a surprised to see snow on the ground, even though it wasn't very much.

After we got out of the airport and into the city, Leslie & I hailed a cab to go to our hostel. But since our hostel was in a pedestrian-only area, our taxi driver only drop us off at the gate of the pedestrian-only area.

Since we had directions from the hostel, Leslie & I were not too worried about not being able to find it, however before we could even figure out our bearings, a older man stopped to talk to us. At first, I thought he might be selling something, but after a split second, I realized he was giving directions to our hostel. After speaking to him for a moment though, he offered to show us where it was and no, he was not looking for a tip. He really was just being incredibly kind. Leslie & I were quite shocked by his hospitality.

As it turns out though, hospitality in Hangzhou was not just limited to this one person. Another time, Leslie & I had just pulled out our map to check where we were and another elderly man stopped and told us where we were before we even had a chance to glance at the map. And even one other time, we were walking down a pedestrian street near our hostel and an older woman stopped her conversation with another man just to talk to us & have me explain to Leslie a bit about Hangzhou's history. I have to say, the hospitality of the people in Hangzhou was quite frankly amazing and it made a really big impression on me. I already had a high opinion of Hangzhou to begin with, but the people's attitude to tourists made it even higher.

The next day, Leslie & I set out to explore the star of Hangzhou: West Lake. Since we got to Hangzhou with enough time to explore a bit the day before before sunset, we already had walked a bit around lake closest to our hostel, so in the morning we headed up in a vaguely sketchy looking van-bus up to the northern part to explore the other sections.

As we walked around the lake, I was really struck by how beautiful the lake really is. The first time, I think I was a bit jaded by all the previous lakes & Chinese gardens we had seen before Hangzhou so West Lake didn't seem that special to me at the time. However, cut to the a few months later after being in Beijing for a while, and the West Lake seemed magnificent in comparison to Beijing (no offense to Beijing).

Probably the most striking thing about the lake was that even though it was the dead of winter and many trees were missing there leaves, there was still a lot of greenery around. In comparison to Qingdao and Beijing, which both looked very grey and almost dead (in terms of plant-life), Hangzhou seemed incredibly green & lush, despite having snow on the ground. The contrast of the snow, the greenery, the bare branches and the occasional already-blooming flower was incredibly beautiful.

Okay, that's enough writing for now. I'll continue writing about Hangzhou in another post. I know all of you just really want to see the pictures so, without further adieu...

 

Lots more pictures on Angela Photo Musings.