Christmas and More!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! (Shengdan Kuaile and Xinnian Kuaile!!)

Late I am sure, but it's never too late to celebrate Christmas!

Our dream of a white Christmas didn't come true, but we came close. Below freezing weather all week! We did hear that many folks back in Tuolumne County got their Christmas wish though, and Dodge is open. Congratulations….just save some powder for us please! Since we don't have the option of snowboarding over here we decided to pick up a new winter sport; ice-snowdriving. It's a fascinating and heart pounding extreme sport that's apparently quite popular in China. We discovered this sport while taking our hour long commute from Dalian to Lushun. It's a beautiful winding drive in the country, over the river, through the woods, to you know where. But lately it's been a little more….interesting. The morning of our first snow in Dalian we hopped into the backseat of our personal cab at 7am and took our usual route towards lovely Lushun. We assumed our driver had driven in the snow before, (stupid) since it is not too unusual for it to snow here. We also assumed other drivers had driven in the snow before (stupider). Basically, the ice and snow covered road turned into a giant pinball machine of cars, trucks, pedestrians, etc. as we swerved and slid on our way….without chains towards school. No other car or truck (out of the 5 million on the road) had chains either. It reminded us of us those idiots that pass us by on the way to Dodge while we put on our chains….only to see them a few miles up the road crashed into a snow embankment.

Anyway, as we got to the top of a small mountain and started heading down we realized we were in trouble. As soon as we began to slide down the road the driver instinctively slammed the brakes on. When he realized this wasn't working he pulled the e-break. By this time we were picking up speed and there were no guard rails between us and, well, certain death. I began to run through my mind what exactly we would do when we inevitably careened over the cliff a few meters away. One hand clenched the door handle, the other my wife. Had our adventures in China seriously come to this?? Diving out of a moving vehicle onto an icy road to survive?

Well, you can stop holding your breath. We survived! But don't let our parents read this. Somehow our driver alternated between the e-break, foot break, and gas with such precision that we avoided the cliff and made it "safely" to school.

In other news, we made it to Beijing to do a little sightseeing a few weeks ago. We saw the Olympic Bird's Nest and reenacted Usain Bolt's chest-thumping finish line crossing. Then we took a look at the Water Cube where Michael Phelps claimed his eight gold medals. But the highlight of Beijing was definitely the Forbidden City. And after eight hours of walking around we realized why it is called a CITY! It's gigantic; truly a remarkable place with incredible history and extraordinary craftsmanship.

Here are a few fun facts for you:

- It covers 180 acres (7,747,200 square feet) and has 9,999 rooms (for good luck)

-It holds the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures and palace structures in the world

-It's over 600 years old and housed 24 emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties

-The last emperor, Emperor Puyi, lived in the city until 1924

Strolling down streets and alleyways that used to be reserved solely for emperors was quite an experience. The Forbidden City is a must see if you ever make your way out to China. Speaking of Forbidden City's, the city Lushun where we teach three days a week is often referred to as "Dalian's Forbidden City"; as most of it is technically off-limits to foreigners. But it's not emperors that give this city its "forbidden" title; it's the naval base housing "state-of-the-art naval equipment….including the latest submarines, destroyers, escort vessels, minesweepers, minelayers, and submarine-chasers." Yikes. This would have been good information to know the first time went there to teach and my wife went for a walk while I was in class. Two policemen pulled over and demanded she give her passport……as it was clear she was a spy. Luckily our Chinese friend intervened and disaster was avoided. Our 007 status is safe, for now. (Google Lvshunkou District, Lushun, or Lvshun for more info on this area of China). As far as Beijing goes, we will be returning next week to see the Great Wall, Summer Palace and more, so stay tuned!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Greetings and Happy Belated Thanksgiving! It’s never too late to give thanks. We have a lot to be thankful for over here, including enjoying our own version of Thanksgiving. It was a bit different without an oven, turkey, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, yams, my mom’s homemade rolls, and I’m going to stop because I’m salivating all over my computer. It was also different being away from our family (a first for both of us), but we did our best to make up for it. We invited over our American friend Luke and his Chinese host family along with our Canadian friend Chelsea. Roast duck (which we purchased off the street) was substituted for turkey, my wife made amazing mashed potatoes, Chelsea brought stuffing shipped from Canada, our housemates made gravy, and our Chinese friends brought the champagne. Overall we had a delicious meal, but we plan on being home for next Thanksgiving!

Finding certain foods over here can be a task, and we’ve searched high and low for such items as maple syrup, limes, real “American” popcorn, tortillas (or any Mexican food for that matter), and other various foods. There is a large Costco-like store here called Metro which we stumbled across and it was like discovering gold. All of the above items were there(except limes), a little expensive, but well worth it for us foreigners starving for a taste of home. Real Chinese food is great, but saying “anyone up for Chinese?” for every meal can get a little old. When we need some good old American cuisine there’s always McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, and a few decent Western Style restaurants. All of them are pretty good, and I must say a Big Mac can taste like the best burger you’ve ever had after a month of Chinese food.

Although China has been westernizing in recent years, the country and people are still adjusting. We are constantly reminded of this by what we call the “movie star affect.” It’s an interesting experience to be in a city of 6 million people and still get stares from like you were a movie star (or an alien). Most of the younger crowd doesn’t do it as much, as they’ve been exposed to more Western films, but they still want to take pictures of you, with you, near you, whenever they can. To demonstrate how far this “movie star affect” goes I will tell you about our BIG performance here. A few weeks after we arrived in China we were told by our Chinese co-workers that we would be singing at the school’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.

“Singing?!”

Yes.

“Singing what!?”

A Chinese song. You don’t know it yet.

“Of course we don’t.” (it ended up being the Beijing Olympics theme song- “Beijing Huan Ying Ni-Beijing Welcomes you)

A few rehearsals later and we were live, spotlights and all, singing in Chinese, in front of 5,000 people. Crazy! That’s China. We are celebrities on campus.

Speaking of Beijing. We are excited about our upcoming trip. We will finally get to check off some of the big sights in China: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, and the Great Wall. We have technically already seen the Great Wall, but it was a small section in a city called Dandong on the North Korean/China border. We did a weekend trip there and it was quite a sight to gaze across the Yalu River and into North Korea- one of the “Axis’s of Evil!!” The contrast between China and N.K. was stark. Multi-storied buildings, highways, streetlights, restaurants, and all the elements of a modern city covered the Chinese landscape of Dandong. North Korea had a few small buildings, some farmland, the evil eye of Sauron (just kidding), and…surprisingly…a Ferris Wheel. This was fascinating to me. In a country known for being horrendously oppressed and poor there was this vacant Ferris Wheel. It was as if Kim Jong II (N.K.’s leader) was trying to say to the rest of the world, “hey, look at us!! We have so much fun over here in North Korea!! We have a Ferris Wheel! Look!”

The Great Wall there was ‘great,’ but we’re looking forward to seeing a bigger section in Beijing. We will definitely let you know how that trip goes. Thanks for reading.

Phrase of the Day: A Chinese saying- “yuanmu qiuyu”- which means- “It’s like climbing a tree to catch a fish”- basically, “a complete waste of time.”

Article for Sierra Mountain Times

Hello- Sorry it's been awhile. Not too much excitement going on here these days. Although we did get our first snow! Below is an article that I wrote for a newspaper that my brother Thomas is the editor of. If you want to read the newest one you can go to www.sierramountaintimes.com and type in "From Foreign Lands" in the search bar. Some of the info is from my blog, but there is some new stuff as well. Enjoy!


From Foreign Lands by Daniel and Amanda Atkins
November 24th, 2008 · No Comments
Hello again folks, friends, and family
Well, we are still here and China continues to surprise us. Old Man Winter has been creeping up the last few weeks and temperatures have been hanging around the 30’s lately (F). So naturally our survival instincts kicked in and told us to do what any good American does when it gets too cold – TURN ON THE HEAT!! Unfortunately for us, and millions of others over here, things operate a little differently on the other side of the Pacific. Apparently the government over here has a lot of control over certain things (hmmm? Really!?) One of those being the HEAT. After realizing there was nowhere in our apartment to turn on the heaters that were in every room we inquired about it to some friends. They laughingly informed us that the heat would be on November 15th. Of course, November 15th!!! And why not, it was mid-October when we asked “how do we turn on the heat?”, and Nov. 15th was “only” a month away. So, as I sit here in my frigid apartment, on November 15th, which we have dubbed “National Heat Day”, the heat has NOT come on. Stay posted for more on this topic…if we survive.
Besides the heat issue, things are good. We’ve been enjoying the local cuisine, which ranges from amazingly cheap and delicious to unbelievably disgusting looking and expensive. Some interesting food items we have seen or read on the menu are chicken feet and hog nose (which can be found in the snack section near the potato chips – seriously), spicy octopus balls, squid on a stick (on every street corner), wriggling grubs, yummy squid salad and live toad. I consider myself somewhat adventurous in trying new foods, but it stops when things are still moving. As to whether or not Chinese-Chinese food is better than American-Chinese food the answer is a resounding YES! Sorry, Panda Express.
Part of the fun about being in another country is noticing the cultural differences here. An example of this would be the baby and toddler’s “special” pants. You can see pictures of these baby pants online by typing in China baby pants on Google images. Basically, the young children here wear pants with a slit down the back so they can pretty much take care of business at anytime in almost any place. Sometimes a parent will scoop their child up and run them to the nearest trashcan, but there isn’t always time for this. Sure the kids are cute. But this has to stop.
Cultural difference #2. Smoking…smoking…and more smoking. I know that we hail from California and there are few public places left where people can indulge in their lung cancerous behavior (which is great!), but in China this form of population control still runs rampant. Cigarettes are practically free here too, maybe 50 cents a pack U.S. dollars, so that isn’t helping. And they smoke everywhere, literally. Restaurants, schools, gyms, theme parks, taxis, zoos, pre-schools…..you can smoke them on a train, you can smoke them in the rain, you can smoke them in my face, you can smoke them ANYPLACE!!!! Hopefully they will figure it out soon, but I doubt it.
One of our best experiences over here so far happened by total chance. About a month ago we went for a walk along the coast of Dalian. We followed a road on a really nice boarded path that was 12km (still don’t really know the conversion). We enjoyed a wonderful view of the coastal part of the city, got some exercise, and had an amazing experience with a random group of people picnicking on the trail. As we were walking past a group of people lunching on the sidewalk we couldn’t help but notice their big spread of food. We were about ready to get lunch ourselves, when one of the guys offered me a breaded roll looking thing (turned out to be tofu) and gestured for me to sit down. So, I did, and soon we were sharing beers, soda, cucumbers, fish, and other unknown food items, with about 10 Chinese people who didn’t speak any English. Actually, they spoke about as much English as we speak Chinese, and their 10 and 12 year old kids were the best. Every time one of us would take a drink they would all drink and say “CHEERS!” The incredible hospitality from these total strangers was definitely a highlight and we plan on returning the favor someday to some random travelers when we are back home.
That’s all for now, thanks for reading.
Chinese Phrase of the Day- “Du_sh_o qíen?”- How much does this cost?

Crazy Food

It's been a little while, and I know many of you have been pacing back and forth for days, nervously awaiting our next blog. and I apologize for any grief it may have caused you. It's not that I we had forgotten about you, trust me. The real reason we have neglected to inform you on our latest crazy adventures(misadventures) was a virus struck, and struck hard. before you inquire about our health I assure you we are fine....our computer on the other hand barely survived it. Poor thing was a mess. Couldn't get a response from it for days and finally had to end its life, to save. thank goodness I had all of our music and pictures backed up. anyway, moral of the story, get a really good anti-virus program, and don't try to download THE OFFICE episodes while in China..

So, besides computer problems (which I am happy to say are fixed, for the moment), we have been doing as well as can be thousands of miles away from home. I thought I'd take the time during this blog to discuss some of the local cuisine that we have either seen or eaten. After watching some of the little "cultural outings" that reporters did during the Olympics I was half expecting to see squid and dog on every street corner in town. I was only half wrong. We haven't seen any dogs.....dogs for eating, yet.. But we have been to some Korean restaurants that apparently serve this "delicacy." We are unsure if we have actually consumed any dog ourselves, but are pretty confident we have not. I am curious about what kind of dogs are supposedly better though. Do bulldogs have a juicier, more tender taste, and great danes a tougher more salty side??? sorry all of you dog lovers. I am proud to say that my old dog Twinky would have fetched quite a price on any menu in town.... When I asked one of my students if she had ever had dog she looked at me with a puzzled expression, and then said "of course.. it's my favorite."
well, duh! idiot American makes another mistake. oh well. Moving on. So, I said earlier that I was only half wrong about the dogs and squids on every corner. that's because there are squids on sticks, literally, on every corner..It's crazy to be walking down the street and see little kids walk by munching on a squid stick. It's as normal as little fat American kids stuffing their faces with an ice cream cone. We have tried squid by the way, just not on a stick. Too rubbery.
Next on the list is chicken feet. These are quite popular as well, and can be found in the meat section of the market, or in the snack section (pre-cooked and in little plastic bags- next to the Lays potato chips). Next to these you can find the pre-cooked pig snout...I know what you're thinking, "why not the pig foot?") well, the pig feet are back in the meat section.

We've also seen live, uncooked frogs in the seafood section, next to the live sea turtles. spicy octopus balls. yummy squid salad. and numerous other items that we have no idea what they could be. and don't really care to know.

BUT! The amount of amazingly delicious and cheap food China has to offer far outshines all of its stranger choices, and so far we haven't had a bad meal yet. We've done Hot Pot several times, which involves boiling hot water in a pot in the center of your table. Half the pot is spicy the other mild, and you order whatever meats and veggies you want to cook yourself in the spicy water. It's AMAZING! Dumplings, meat rolls, noodles, fried rice, sweet and sour anything, amazing cooked vegetables, and a million other dishes. If you like Chinese food in the U.S., you will definately like CHINESE food.

The Great Wall (part 1) and North Korea.....only a stones throw away!!

Well, we finally checked the "big one" off the list. the GREAT WALL. the mac-daddy of tourist destinations in China. Only we went to a section that is a little less touristy and not nearly as extensive as the one in and around Beijing. The portion we went to is in a city called Dandong. That's right.. Dan.....dong. I won't even bother with the puns. Anyways, the city is located along the Yalu River which separates China from North Korea. So when I say "North Korea was only a stones throw away" I mean exactly that. IN fact, just to prove our point we all threw rocks over the river and into North Korea during a walk at the base of the Great Wall. Pretty crazy experience to be that close to one of the "axisessess." We walked out onto a bridge that was bombed during the Korean War by AMERICANS!! They left it as is, so you can walk out halfway into the river and then it ends. Super windy when we were out there, but well worth the 20 yuan. It was amazing to see the contrast between China and North Korea, even with the limited amount of N.K. we could see. Dandong had some high-rise buildings, major roads, cars, traffic lights, etc. pretty modernized. While the North Korean side was purely agrarian with a few 2-story buildings and that was it. Oh, and a non-functioning Ferris Wheel of all things. I think it was just for show, to say "hey, look! We have all kinds of fun over here!!"

After checking out the bridge to nowhere we had lunch at a North Korean style restaurant. Interesting food, not bad. The soup was excellent. Then we headed out to the Great Wall. THis section of the Great Wall is its beginning, in the Northeast. History lesson::: Several walls, referred to as the Great Wall of China, were built since the 5th century BC. The most famous is the wall built between 220–200 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang; little of it remains; it was much farther north than the current wall, which was built during the Ming Dynasty.The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles)

Quite an impressive feat, and only about 2-3 million people died building it!! (wiki) The Wall was impressive looking and our friend Hunter got us excited to see the one in Beijing which is much longer. Most of the original Great Wall has disappeared so there are only portions of it around the country you can still see, and many of these, such as the one in Dandong, are restored. The best part about the one in Dandong was that it climbed over a really steep hill and then went down the other side. WHen we were on top we had a great view of North Korea. At the end of the wall, near the Korean border, we went into a little museum which was all in Chinese and then walked along the Yalu River back to the start. It was here that Hunter had the brilliant idea of throwing a stone into North Korea. We agreed that had there been a North Korean on the soldier and we had hit them with our stones then we most definately would have started WWIII. no question.

Back in the main city of Dandong we had dinner at a great South Korean restaurant on the river. It was pretty cool how we prepared our food. They brought the meat and mushrooms out on skewers and we would place them into this contraption in the center of the table that rotated the meat over hot coals. When the meat was done we'd pop up the kebab, dip the meat in some spice, and enjoy... Went for a few beers next door afterwards and then tried a crazy Chinese nightclub that had a bouncing dance floor! This was fun for about 10 seconds until your insides wanted to be on your outsides. Our hotel room had a view of the river and North Korea, just so we could keep on eye on them. You never know! Actually, you couldn't see a thing over there at night. Curfew. Lights out!

The following morning we watched a wedding celebration out of the window in a coffee shop. They love setting off fireworks and confetti cannons and poppers. So that's exactly what they did, in the middle of the street, as people walked by and traffic flowed as usual. The bride and groom step out of their limo and it was CHAOS! fireworks, loud cannon sounding things, giant poppers in the shape of a heart (that caught on fire and burned in the sreet for awhile). this is all pretty standard wedding stuff according to Hunter...if you can afford it. Oh yes, and doves were set free as well. QUite an entertaining show over breakfast! the bride looked a bit stunned though. oh well. i think they got us on film..

Our last stop was the Museum of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. That's the Korean War in English. Pretty interesting to read about their "perspective" on the events. It was English so that was good. I'm planning on checking out a few "facts" that were posted on some of the pics. Very interesting indeed. Hopped on a bus home, and played "crazy bus driver" for the next 6 hours. Seriously, this guy was doing computer game maneuvers. ALong the way we would stop to pick up as many people as we could, until the aisle was jammed full of people sitting on little benches. A shady little side business these bus driving maniacs like to run. BUT, we did arrive safely in Dalian and overall it was a great trip. Got some culture, some pictures, and some nausea. Adios DANDONG!

UFO's?!!? DINOSAURS??!!

Did a little more exploring of our city yesterday, which was quite fun. We are finding that this city keeps getting bigger and bigger (they're definition of city limits is very broad here). We were invited to join our friend Hunter and some of his classmates on a hike and decided to tag along.

Took a bus to the light rail and the rail to another bus and we were began hiking the "giant mountain!" it actually turned out to be more of a hill than mountain, but beautiful views nonetheless. The original plan was to go to a bigger mountain but we will have to wait until another time. On top of the hill was a UFO structure which in classic Chinese form took a bit away from the natural beauty, but wasn't nearly as cheesy as some of the other "art" forms we've seen strewn about the landscape here. The students were great and their English was pretty good, so we were able to have some good conversations. Had a snack on top of the hill and then went down the backside towards the beach. THis is in the Development ZOne of the city and the hill we hiked is called Tongniuling Hill. At the bottom we encountered some DINOSAURS on the side of the road! crazy. spent a little time at the beach and then headed back to the train station. The fact that you can take a train out of the "city limits" to another part of the city and still be in Dalian illustrates my point perfectly that their boundary system for city limits is very loose. This is why we were told the city of Dalian has nearly 6 million people when most websites we looked at said it was about 2 million. It would be like including all Pleasanton and the outlying areas of San Fran in San Fran's cities population. Don't why I'm bothering to write this, but you can keep that in mind when you hear some population sizes of cities in China. They are definately super-crowded over-populated cities, but the #'s may be a bit skewed. After the beach the students were a bit tired and were ready to head back to the school, so we decided to cruise around the city a bit more with Hunter. Met a Chinese guy who had lived in LA for awhile and knew where San Jose was and was thinking of opening a clam chowder place here. Small world. Checked out a new, more localized mall, had a bite to eat and met Hunter's friend Susan, and then went for a walk around the city. Had our first tea shop experience which was great. You sit down and they serve you fresh hot tea as they explain "in Chinese of course" how to serve it, etc. THe tea was amazing. Tried three different types. A Jasmine, oolong tea (which we bought, really really good), a green tea, and pu-er tea, a bit darker. Looking forward to making our own Chinese tea, especially since winter is coming soon!
Hunter helped us out with a few more Chinese words- left, right, and straight (zuo, yoa, jizoa) and a few more. Planning on getting more serious about learning Mandarin. we shall see! zaijian!

THE BIG SHOW......

Here it is folks, the moment you've all been waiting for! "LIVE FROM CHI-NA , IT'S THE ATKINS FAMILY !" (imagine the SNL intro here/ or the Adam's Family intro song, either one works). In previous posts I mentioned that we were finagled into singing in front of thousands of Chinese at our university. And we had to sing in Chinese. A few weeks ago we posted a video of the performance which you can still see, but we didn't have any good pics of the show. until now....

Here are the long awaited for shots of us singing "Beijing Wei Ying Ni!" It's a huge hit over here, even Jackie Chan sang part of it in the Olympic Ceremony! All their big celebs did in fact, except Yao. This was their Olympic Theme song and everyone here knows it. And now, we do too! sort of. Needless to say it was a bit nerve racking but after all was said and done it was a fun experience.
At the end of the show they called us back out and we gave a big standing ovation as they played some music, set off fireworks and confetti was everywhere. Good times indeed!
Pictured are Amanda, Josh and Ashley Ostini, and Harry Yang, Chelsea from Canada can also be seen next to me.
Well, enjoy the pics- Keep checking in for more updates.

Anyone need to make a deposit???

So Amanda and I went to the bank to buy a bus pass. As we were riding up the elevator we turned around and noticed these friendly fellows standing behind us. The guys they were protecting were both carrying a stuffed to the gills duffel bag...straight out of a shady mob movie scene. When they got to the teller "each individual stack was so tall that they kept toppling over. and the rubber bands that were holding the stacks together kept breaking." i think they were trying to decide how best to divy up the cash among all the customers...
seriously though, there was a lot of money in those bags. crazy.

Exploration

The other day Amanda and I had our classes canceled so we decided to do a bit of exploring in the city. Our goal was to one of the trams as far as we could and then hike along a road near the coast for awhile. The tram ride lasted about 40 minutes and when we arrived at the end we found out the road was closed for construction, or something. So we took the tram back and decided to get dropped off at a random square. We got off the tram and noticed a Carrefour (French version of Wal Mart), so we decided to check it out. Look for some cheap dvd's. More expensive than the street vendors though ($2-3 U.S. vs. 75 cents). Had an amazing encounter at the store though! While AManda was waiting in line an elderly Chinese lady asked her in perfect English "are you a tourist here?" We talked with her for awhile and found out that she had "resided in D.C. for 20 years." Her name is Ruth and her husband is Benjamin. She said they have those names b/c they are believers! IT was all His timing. amazing. got their #, will see them again.
Had lunch at McD's and then decided to use the map of the city that we bought and try to just explore the area. It was a lot of fun. We hiked all over the area. Went to a beautiful park (Children's Park on Google Earth), walked through a botanical garden, and went through some amazing streets with very American looking homes. All empty though. My friend Jason said that perhaps they are too expensive and n0 one can afford them! It was great to be able to walk around the city with a map and actually find our way around. We are hoping to continue doing this until we have seen most of the city, at least the downtown area.
After exploring the area we took a tram to Russian Town. Which turned out to be Russian styled buildings with lots of Chinese vendors selling random things. We bought some gifts for the folks back home, had a good time bartering for things. It's amazing how marked up everything is. They're hoping to catch some uninformed tourists and rip them off. WOuld have been us if our friends hadn't told us you offer 1/4 price for most street vendor items! crazy way to shop. you feel bad at first, but get used to it after awhile.
Our last stop was a Spanish Style restaurnat called Tapas that we noticed on our way back from the Bingyu Valley. We were praying for some Mexican style food. It was a little pricey but the atmosphere was very nice and the food was excellent. Amanda had a super-green asparagus and spinach soup and we got a garlic bread with chicken appetizer. Great change up for the taste buds! THe main course was almost fajitas...we're still looking for tortillas. But we got the meat, the bell peppers onions and rice. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Bingyu Valley

Yesterday, Saturday, we took a trip to a place called the Bingyu Valley. It was about 2 1/2 hours away by bus, so we left Dalian at 7:30am. This meant we had to leave our house at 6am to make sure we were at the station at 7:10. The bus we took to the Bingyu bus was jam packed. We call this bus Ernie, because another bus we take is called the BRT or Bert. Bert and Ernie take us almost anywhere we need to go in Dalian, only Ernie is usually more crowded and for some reason the drivers can't shift gears without sending everyone flying forward or backward. not too fun when there's 85 people in a bus with 35 seats.
Anyway, the ride to Bingyu Valley was nice. Got some beautiful agricultural scenery with peasant farms and housing. Nice to get some more rural exposure. We stopped at a "restroom" stop, which consisted of a wall near the highway. Then we stopped for lunch, at 10:30am, in a random little town where everyone on the bus was served a traditional Chinese lunch. Fish, chicken, veggies, rice, soup, and nothing to drink. There was a man outside selling some very interesting roots and other sorts of healing herbs, not those herbs. Oh yes, and during the latter part of our bus ride we were told the entire history of the Bingyu Valley by our tour guide!!! incredible story.. oh wait, it was all in Chinese and we didn't understand a thing. so we listened to music. Our friend Harry said something about dragons living in the park. neat.
The park is basically Karst rock formations with a river running through it. The brochures say it is "as exquisite as the scenery in Guilin" and a "fabulous choice for a weekend getaway." Well, it was a great choice, but from what we've heard Guilin (south China, where The Painted Veil was filmed) is much more spectacular. hopefully we can go there on our next break. We were given a 3 hour free time during the tour and Amanda and I went for a beautiful hike up steep stairs to the top of one of the karst formations. On top was a Chinese style gazebo (best comparison I can think of). The view was great, the hike was exhausting, and the trail kept going. We decided that rather than go back down the way we came up we would see if the trail ended up near where we were supposed to meet. A risky gamble considering that we only had so much time, and if we were wrong we would have to return. We took the risk and immediately the trail plunged straight down the side of the mountain, some of the steepest steps I've seen! (sort of like the Lord of the Rings trail that Gollum takes sam and frodo on....nerd reference.) we got to the bottom very quickly and ended up in a clearing with a bunch of horses tied to trees. 5 or 6 Chinese men dressed in army fatigues stood in the distance.oh crap. we cautiously approached them and one of them gestured for us to ride one of the horses. we realized it was a horse riding tour place and not a secret high altitude off limits to foreigners military base (with an outdated calvary). whew! we pointed to our watches to indicate we didn't have enough time and continued on to meet up with Harry, Josh and Ashley. We met them at the edge of the river where there was basically a cheesy little theme park styled approach to crossing the river. We've come to realize that China loves spoiling beautiful scenery and views with cheesy little plastic sculptures of animals or carnival like games. there was seriously a place to shoot darts at balloons for 1 of 2 remaining stuffed animals in the middle of this beautiful outdoor park. Imagine that halfway up the trail to half dome!! oh well. they'll learn, hopefully.
So, we had about 6 different options to cost the river, all ranging in price from 1-10 yuan. There was a zipline, a tight rope, innertube boats, a path (for the feint of heart), a rolling ball, and two suspension bridges. I chose a suspension bridge and the others all decided to do the tight rope. Pretty fun, and ridiculous. INteresting way to end our trip in the Bingyu Valley. All in all it was a fun trip, with beautiful scenery and we just may return sometime. It looked the trees were just about to turn color, so it may be worthwhile to head back in a month or so.

for more pics of our trip follow the link at the top right of the page under Pics and Videos titled Bingyu Valley. Thanks for reading!!!

Cultural Differences

I've been making a list of cultural differences that we have noticed in our short time in China, and the list has gotten long enough for me to write about it. I am hoping to use this list to teach my students about some differences between Americans and Chinese and how they can be better prepared for interacting with foreigners, especially Americans. So, here is our list thus far:

1) Cutting- as in cutting in line: B/c the bus system here is incredibly cheap, and pretty convenient we have been using it a lot to get downtown from where we live. There are usually lines at certain stops where you can wait just to have a seat, rather than stand for 30 minutes. And apparently it's okay to just walk past everyone right to the front. I'm going to tell my students that if you do this in the U.S. not only will you get yelled at by some grouchy old man or women, but you may just get punched in the mouth.
2) Nose picking- Now, I know that everyone participates in this ancient pastime across all cultures. BUT.... unless you are under 6 years old you are typically as discreet about this as possible. Meaning, you DO NOT jam your finger up your nose, dig around a bit, examine the treasure, and yes.......do the deed, when there are 1.2 million people standing around you. At first we all thought this was just some guy who didn't care, but a month in China has taught us that this behavior is not uncommon. Mostly men though, of course.
3) The BABY PANTS- you may have seen pics of the baby pants online, and I will try to post my own pic soon. Basically, the young children here wear pants with a slit down the middle so they can pretty much take care of business at anytime in almost any place. Sometimes a parent will scoop their child up and run them to the nearest trash can, but there isn't always time for this.. Sure the kids are cute. But this has to stop.
4) Smoking...Smoking..and more smoking...- I know that we hail from California and there are few places left where people can indulge in their lung cancerous behavior. which is great! but in China this form of population control is rampant. Cigarettes are practically free here too, maybe 50 cents a pack U.S.$, so that isn't helping. And they smoke everywhere, literally. Restaurants, school, theme parks, taxis, zoos, pre-schools, you can smoke them on a train, you can smoke them in the rain, you can smoke them in my face, you can smoke them ANYPLACE!!!! you smoke your cigs all day, right until you're in your grave.....
anyway, it's pretty gross, and requires constant clothes washing and breath holding.. hopefully they will figure it out soon. but i doubt it.

i think that i will save the rest for another time.

Binghai Road

Today we went for a great walk along the coast of Dalian. We followed a road on a really nice boarded path that was 12km (still don't really know conversion). Got a great view of the coastal part of the city, some exercise, and had an amazing experience with a random group of people picnicking on the trail. It was great, as we were walking by we were all looking at this big spread of food they had, and were about ready to get lunch ourselves. One of the guys offered me a roll looking thing and gestured for me to sit down. So, I did, and soon we were sharing beers, soda, cucumbers and fish with about 10 Chinese people who didn't speak any English. Actually, they spoke about as much English as I speak Chinese, and their 10 and 12 year old kids were the best. It was one of the best experiences of our trip! We managed to enjoy a meal, have decent conversation and meet some great people.. Everytime one of us would take a drink they would all drink and say "CHEERS!" They were super generous and the food and beers were great. I hope that someday we can return the favor to some random travellers who don't speak English when we are back home.