Update

We are in Yangshuo, China right now. Outside of Guilin. Weather was amazing today and scenery was even better. went for an awesome bike ride along the Yulong River. Will probably spend the Chinese New Year here. January 26th. Try to post pics soon. check facebook if you're interested. GOD BLESS! love Dan and Amanda

Traveling Along

Hello- You'll be pleased to know that we are alive and well in Zhangjiajie, China. WHere exactly is that? I don't know, google it. Actually, it's somewhere below Xi'an, and above Guilin in center-south of CHina up in the mountains. THe scenery here is amazing and it's refreshing to see something more than just buildings, cars, and millions of people. In fact, the town/village, ghost town village we stayed in last night was smaller than TUolumne! but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning. We've been traveling for a week now with our friends Josh and Ashley, and Luke and his father Jon who flew out from the U.S. for the trip.

OUr first stop was Xi'an and we stayed there for 2 nights at a great hostel called the Shuyuan hostel. THe first day we rode bikes along the ancient city walls. It was a great way to see the city and get some exercise. The city is big and old and there were a lot of cool alley-ways to explore, especially in the Muslim district. We even found a place to try a Chinese-burger. pretty good!

Day 2 we checked out the Terracotta Warriors. It was mind boggling how many warriors there were and how detailed they are. Every single one was different and they estimate over 7,000 of these things were made! IT took 750,000 people to construct Emperor QIn's Mausaleum and the warriors. crazy! If I remember right they started building it for him when he was 13 and it took 40 years to finish it. they weren't done when he died!! anyway, it was amazing and a great experience. Day 3, Hua Shan mountain. one of CHina's 5 sacred doaist peaks and the tallest one. WE took a cable car to one of the peaks and then hike for a few hours to the top. the views were awesome! but it was bitterly cold. the granite peaks reminded us a little of Yosemite and one part of the trail was crazier than half dome's cables.

the place we stayed at in the village was a little shady though. ask us in person for that story. short version. wailing woman outside and no heat.

day 4- our first train ride. not bad. took us to Luoyang. finding a place to stay was a little tricky as we hiked around town for awhile. some people tried to scam us into staying in their dodgy hotel and the place we wanted had closed ----the day before we got there! i will say, we would be pretty screwed without Lonely Planet, or Luke-who speaks enough CHinese for us to survive.

SPent the day in Luoyang resting and recovering. Hua Shan wore us out.

Day 5- Met up with one of Ashley's student who is from Luoyang and got THE hook up. we had no idea that her dad worked for the gov., and that's the ticket for getting shmoozed in CHina. We didn't spend a dime the whole day. She took us, well, she had her dad's driver take us to the fanciest restaurant we've been to in China, possibly ever. Best meal in China for sure. 20 dishes or so, all amazing. rack of bbq lamb, bejing duck, etc, Chinese wine, etc...... spoiled for sure. Then we went to the Longmen caves(free entry). they were impressive. BUddhist carvings along the side of the Yi River, began in 460 AD or so. A lot of them had been damaged by people who took parts to sell them. SO a lot of heads were missing, but it was still amazing nonetheless, and some of them were gigantic. once again the Chinese displayed how amazing their craftsmanship and detail is. After that we got a little tour of the city (free ride) and then had dinner. an even fancier place, where we met Amy's mom, AUnt and some government guys. Pretty cool experience.

couldn't get train tics to our next destination from Luoyang, so our hotel manager contacted a friend and got us tickets out of an adjacent city. It's almost the Chinese Spring Festival here,so millions of people are travelling back home by train to be with family . WE've been really fortunate to get this far without major delays. Anyway, the tickets were out of the tiny town in the middle of nowhere, at a train station we could barely find. no one there had ever seen foreigners before. crazy. the train ride was 10 hours so we slept most of it in our bunks- woke up to some really beautiful scenery. along a river, almost tropical climate. orange trees and some large yellow fruit trees. got to the city, took a bus---after some serious walking and searching--to zhangjiajie village. had trouble finding accomodations with hot water and heat in general.it is cold up here in the mountains. although today was nice. had to bail on one place after the heaters crashed. got settled at another place, although pricier- 35$ u.s. is steep in CHina! oh well. today we found a cheaper place in another town that is bigger with more people and places to eat, etc. Visited an amazing cave today. Huge caverns and some really tall stalagmites. even took a boat ride inside the cave!! this thing was really, really, big. made Mercer caverns feel tiny.
tomorrow we will go into the park and check out the karst formations which look spectacular from outside the park. can't wait!!!
overall, trip is going well. be praying for us and we look forward to seeing you all soon!!
love dan and amanda
i'll try to keep you all posted on the

Year in Review

Well, another year has come and gone. The year of "the Ox" has arrived and the "rat" has died. You can plug in whatever you want for the rat, but the point is, we are moving on to bigger (Ox) and better things in 2009. For those of you who don't know, there are twelve animals for the Chinese calendar that rotate each year and they are as follows: Ox, Tiger (2010), Hare, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Boar, Rat. You can find out what animal you are by going backwards from the Ox one year at a time. The Ox symbolizes prosperity through fortitude and hard work, and hopefully prosperity will return to the U.S. this year and the economy will bounce back. However, if this is not the case the Ox also symbolizes the ability to endure any amount of hardship without complaint....so get ready.
So far our New Year in China has been a good one and I want to take this opportunity to a little reflecting and a little looking ahead (refracting?).
First, our Top 10 List of 2008 in China.
#10-Sticking out like sore thumbs and getting stared at wherever we go. It can be a little annoying, but it sure makes bus rides and walking around downtown more entertaining. Unless you're a moviestar, how often do you have random strangers run up to you and want to take a picture withyou?
9) Crazy food. I recently tried donkey tongue, fish eyes, and chicken heart. Mmmmmm.
8) Beijing. The Forbidden City, The Great Wall, The Summer Palace, and Tiananmen Square all in one city! A history nerds dream! (I recently received a single subject teaching credential in History and will be looking for a job when I get back. Please feel free to let me know if you know of any job openings! Seriously.....) I said in the last article I would write about our Beijing trip, so here's the condensed version. The Great Wall is, well, great. The Summer Palace is huge, and I'm sure it would have been nicer in the....summer. And the hostel was pleasant. And I got the flu.
7) Cheapness. The dollar still feels like it's worth something over here. A little over $1 for a bunch of bananas, some apples, and a bag of tangerines. An IPod shuffle for $10. We stayed at a great hostel in Beijing this last weekend for $7 a night and that was a little pricey! It's tough to keep your wife from shopping when things are this cheap. Our biggest culture shock is definately going to be readjusting to American prices when we come home. I don't think we're going to drive or eat for awhile after we get back.
6) Work schedule. I don't want people thinking that we didn't work over here. But.....we taught no more than 15 hours a week. That will be culture shock #2 when we return. "9-5. Are you kidding me?"
5) Dalian. A unique city in China that is quite modern, extremely safe, beautiful(at times), and now that we've been to Bejing, it feels like an immaculately clean and unpolluted haven.
4) Exploring. It's been a lot of fun going out into the city of Dalian without "Chinese supervision." i.e. Someone with us who is Chinese and can translate for us. Some of our best experiences have come from hopping onto a random bus and trying to figure out how to get places by ourselves. It's incredible how much you can accomplish with minimal language skills. We've explored a good chunk of the city just by figuring out bus routes and walking around.
3) Experiences. Too many to mention, but hopefully you've enjoyed reading about some of them.
2) Food. It's delicious. I've never been a big seafood fan, but apparently I've changed. Today I enjoyed a home-cooked meal of shrimp, scallops, squid, fish, oyster and some mystery meat. Thank you to our friend May and her father's amazing cooking skills!
1) Friends. The highlight of our trip thus far has definately been the friends and relationships we have formed. We have had the pleasure of meeting so many friendly and extremely generous people here that it is going to be difficult to leave them. If it weren't for the amazing people we have met here; neighbors, co-workers, students, etc., our trip here would be much less fulfilling and memorable. We hope we can continue our friendship with many of the people we have met here. And thanks to the internet and Facebook it's actually possible. If any of our Chinese friends are reading this, THANK YOU!!

As for looking forward, we leave to Xian in three days and can't wait to see some more of China. The country is massive and we've set up our trip to cut right through the center of the country. I'll do my best to keep you posted while we travel! Thanks for reading.
Chinese Phrase of the Day-
"Wo shuode bu hao"--- I don't speak (Chinese) very well.
pronounced- wa shuada boo how.

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.