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.