Shopping in China

Today was supposed to be our final free day in Beijing. I think I wrote yesterday that the plans were changed and we actually had to be back on campus at 5:50 to go to dinner. You don't know about the first time I went shopping with Jing (yet) but this was actually the second time I went shopping with Jing Jing.

Jing is a graduate assistant in our office at ATS. She is originally from Beijing and is back in Beijing now visiting her parents before she returns to ETSU for summer school. She called last night and we arranged to meet today to do some shopping. Poor Jing. I don't think she is much of a shopper but I have made her shop all day when she spends time with me. We are nearing the end though and I'm worried that I don't have enough souvenirs or the right souvenirs or something. I think my worries are probably unnecessary. I also have money left though and I would hate to regret not buying something.

So we were supposed to meet at 10:00. My roommate, Michelle, had told me that I had to sign something in the International Office so I was trying to track down Mr. Xiong. I couldn't find him so I went off in search of Henry. I ended up finding Henry in Mr. Xiong's assistant's office. Turns out I wasn't supposed to sign anything at all. Only she was supposed to sign something. I told Henry that I was spending the day with Jing and so he ended up going with us.

We took the subway to Xidan where we were quite successful. I decided that I needed a slightly larger bag than the one I had brought and after some searching around we found the right size bag. The price was too high, of course, but Jing eventually bargained him down to a good price. We continued to fill the bag with other purses, some Olympic souvenirs, a shirt or two and other things which I can no longer remember. We started in a Chinese style mall. It is basically just little shops crammed in row after row. Most of the shops have the same or similar things. It supposedly makes it easier to bargain but I'm still not a good bargainer. Jing spoke to them and asked for lower, countered, etc. We usually ended up happy. We left a couple of times without buying anything and a few times we felt like it should be lower but we were mostly happy.

I have only one technique and it is not so much technique as I don't really like the offer/counteroffer method. They tell me the price, which is always way too high. We both know it is too high. This is what they do. I really like it when it's only a little high. We can agree quickly and I can move on. This is rare. They reserve the extra high prices for foreigners. So they always give me a ridiculously high price and then tell me why it is so high. They will point to some arbitrarily assigned price and explain that they are only asking half because I am a special friend or beautiful or from America or just whatever they think will work. There have been a couple of them who I really liked and pretty much knowingly paid too much. Usually I'm annoyed that they think I am so stupid.

So here is the technique, they name the price. I look shocked (I'm not shocked anymore because the opening price for me is always ridiculous) and tell them it is too expensive. They explain again how good the quality is and remind me why it is so much. They then offer another slightly lower number and I shake my head no and start to put down whatever I am holding. Their turn to say how much, how much you want to pay and then they thrust the calculator at me. Go ahead, go ahead, how much you want to pay? It's okay. You tell me and we will agree. It's okay. So I give them my price. My actual, this is what I am willing to pay and nothing more price. They laugh and act shocked and lower theirs a bit more. I shake my head and start to leave. After several iterations they will grab my arm and do whatever to keep me. They will keep talking and tell me just a little more, a little more. Too low. I continue to leave until they call after me. I never go back up though. I'm never so in love with anything that I can't live without it. I guess that's my real secret.

We poked around the malls at Xidan a bit but I was determined to get some Chinese paper cuttings that I could frame and hang on the wall. Xidan is not a good place to find them. We saw them everywhere when traveling but I was convinced that I could find them in Beijing. Not so much. We were trying to decide what to do in about the hour and a half we had left and so I said that I wanted to go to another market that should have taken only about 30 minutes by subway. Jing and Henry wouldn't let me go off on my own so we all headed for the market. I have never seen the subway so crowded. I knew that it gets crowded but I had only ever been on when it was not bad. We managed to crowd into the car but I wasn't sure. It took longer than it should have just because of all the people.

We made it to the market though and I went directly to the paper cuttings. I got 3 for 50 Yuan and Jing just watched me this time. I think she finally decided that maybe I was okay on my own. The lady who sold them was not all happy and smiles, which is a good sign. These sales ladies are also just really good actors. Still, I was happy with the price. I was willing to pay as much as 20 for each so it worked for me. And, even though everyone tells me that I can't think that way, it was still only about $7 US. Not bad. I also got a silk purse for Emily on the way out - I didn't have to bargain on that one because she started off low. I got some scarves right before going out the door.

I think I will head back out for one more time tomorrow. Pop into an Olympics store and see if there is a t-shirt that I like and just bargain like heck. Nothing bulky though because I am doing well with the bags I have now. Don't want to have to expand again. Jewelry and t-shirts are highly portable and highly available at Hongqiao Market.

We took a taxi back because the subway is not fun when it is so crowded and also because we wanted to make sure we had time to get ready for dinner. They took us to a restaurant that serves Peking duck. I think this is THE restaurant in Beijing for Peking duck actually. We have had duck twice and for some reason it seemed better the first time. Maybe I was hungrier. I was surprised both times at what seemed like too little meat, too. I must just not pay close attention. I think it fed all of us and there may have been some left over.

This has been an interesting group. Ron has grown on me over the four weeks and Neil has been steady the entire time. He's really mature for his age and very pleasant to be around. I don't feel like I know Alice since we did not see her most of the time. The Komineks turned out to be very nice and good company. I am ready to come home though. I am not especially ready to return to work but I am ready to go back even though I have actually felt better this week than the entire time I was here. I have avoided Chinese food as much as possible recently, which I think has helped. All the junk I have been eating can't be good but at least I feel okay for now. I will do better when I am finally home.

Alive and mostly well

We returned from the traveling portion of our trip very early in the morning on June 15. I felt like I should write about that before continuing but it is mostly a blur and I was exhausted and didn't feel well much of the time. It was just too much traveling and activity and not enough rest. For me anyway. I guess I can't speak for the rest of the group. I think the young people handled it okay but us older people needed more rest.

Anyway, I fear I have lost all of my faithful readers because of the absence but I will try to slowly catch you back up if anyone is still reading. We are almost at the end of the trip now. Tomorrow is another free day. Or, a mostly free day. Our schedule says that it is free but I found out a few hours ago that we are to meet at 5:50 so that we can have a farewell dinner. The dinner was originally scheduled for Sunday but I have learned that if there is a schedule it is subject to change. We usually just don't have a lot of details about the schedule.

I was planning to spend the day with Jing, my graduate assistant at ETSU, tomorrow and finish up last minute shopping. She is coming here to meet me at 10:00 a.m. so I guess we will still spend much of the day together. I fear that she had made plans. If she has gone to any trouble I will probably just skip the dinner. She and I had planned our time together a long time ago so I think it will take precedent over a changed dinner schedule.

Sunday was supposed to be our packing day and then farewell dinner. I guess it is now just a packing day and any last-minute shopping or other things day. I did some preliminary packing today and am afraid that I may need to buy another bag. Just a duffle type bag should be fine. I think I can almost make it now but was planning to bring back candy and stuff with the money left on my debit card for the school store. A larger bag will just make it less stressful to get everything I want and not sacrifice some of the packaging to protect my priceless valuables.

I will write more later. I napped today and am not feeling tired but need to be getting normal amounts of sleep.

The Pearl Market

Henry and Susan are both so good to me. I really hope that nothing happens to me on the trip because I think they would both just feel terrible. I will do my best to be careful. I mentioned in yesterday's posting that I was emotionally distraught. While it was true it was only because I had lost my very eloquent blog posting. It was my own fault and I always shake my head when someone complains because it has happened to them. I hadn't logged in but had just started writing in an open post. Blogger did claim to be saving it for me but who knows to where. At any rate, Henry came over first thing this morning to check and make sure I was okay. I am indeed.

So yesterday started with a lesson about the difference between Chinese and English grammar. We spend a lot of time joking about the signs and t-shirts that we say and how the English words just seem sort of casually thrown together. The resulting phrases are sometimes comical. These English phrases make perfect sense to them though and they are just forming their sentences as they would in Chinese. I think I could spend 10 years in Beijing and still not be able to speak or write in Chinese. There are 65,000 characters currently in use. That's a whole lotta characters. Of course you don't use all of these in everyday speaking or writing but still. That's a lot.

We visited the Temple of Heaven in the afternoon. I believe this is where the emperor would come to report on the situation and talk to God. Sort of an ancient Chinese state of the union address. It had some of the architecture and designs we have seen elsewhere but it was much simpler. I have posted a picture of several of our group standing on the exact spot where the emperor would talk to God. Henry was there, too, but I didn't get a photo. I just wasn't feeling it here. One of the first we saw was the area where they would lead the cow in for sacrificing. That somehow set the mood for me, but also, as Henry pointed out, I am really a Daoist at heart.

I think I might be templed out but when I realized last night that I actually can tell the difference between the different types of temples. Or, I can least give it a pretty good shot. Outside the temple there is a park and all sorts of people had gathered in the park. There were several groups singing and playing music and even more people sitting around playing cards. It is usually older people doing this but I have never seen so many gathered in one place. You can never be sure where you will see them when you are out but if you are wandering down a moderately quiet street you are guaranteed to see at least one group playing cards or chess.

After the temple we went across the street to the Hongqiao Market. When I had spoken to the guys who had been at ETSU they seemed to think I wouldn't want to go there. I had heard from Henry and Alice that it was a good place to get pearls but my little friends said it would be things that were being sold as old but really just new stuff made to look old (i.e. fake antiques.) I think maybe they aren't really shoppers though. They didn't seem to have good advice for where to go. They did ask a woman in their department and she gave them the name of a location near Wangfujing (the big expensive shopping street) but I'm not sure if I will scope that out or not.

So the market has all kinds of touristy stuff on the first and second floors - traditional Chinese outfits, little red dangly things for mirrors, fake purses, wallets, etc. - the third floor is fake pearls and other jewerly. The fourth floor is good pearls and jewelry and the fifth floor is really good pearls and jewelry. I skipped the first three floors (although I plan to come back for souvenirs) and went straight to the fourth floor. I did not go to the fifth floor because I was pretty sure I couldn't (or shouldn't) buy anything from there. I think you got the gist of it from yesterday's posting but I ended up purchasing some white gold and black pearl earrings. The saleslady kept telling me what good taste I have (yeah right, these Chinese women will sell you your own shoes if you aren't paying attention.) I chose the size pearl I wanted and the setting for the earrings and then waiting while the young woman glued them together for me. I paid more than I should have but it will be my only extravagant purchase. I can't really tell the difference between real jade and fake jade so I don't mind if everything else is less than real. I will probably even buy some of the fake pearls when I go back. They are pretty good fakes. There were pictures of Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright and other politicians who I didn't recognize. I figure any store that is still happy to say that Bill Clinton shopped there is good enough for me. She put the earrings in a very nice bag tied with a ribbon so I felt pretty good about things when I left.

I wanted to stay and do more shopping but (1) I was afraid that I was on a roll and didn't really want to spend a lot of money and (2) we are leaving today and I don't want to be completely worn out before we get started. I was uploading photos to flickr when Jessica, Aubrey and Michelle returned. They brought me their Pizza Hut leftovers. Yum! I don't really like Supreme pizza but it didn't matter. It tasted pretty close to home anyway.

Jessica and Aubrey left around 6:00 this morning. Aubrey felt he could only take two weeks off from work and Jessica actually started class on Monday so they needed to get back. We have spent most of the day packing and getting ready. I thought it might take me an hour to get my stuff together. Silly me. I spent several hours packing. I am trying to pack as lightly as possible since we will be moving from train to train and bus to bus. I think I am pretty light but I don't really have any extra space in there. No sounvenirs for me when traveling unless they are very small. The car will come for us at 5:00 p.m. and we need to be ready to go so that we can make it to the train station and be ready to go at 6:45.

I had lunch with Henry, Professor Chen, and a young Chinese student who is coming to ETSU and his father. It was a typical big meal. Professor Chen ordered 6 dishes or so, including the sweet exploding fish dish that turns up at all big meals and I ate until I was uncomfortable. The dishes were mostly pork and mostly greasy. I hadn't intended to eat a big meal before the train but I'm sure I will survive. I hadn't really had anything else and there won't be an opportunity for dinner so I will be grateful later.

We are all packed up and mostly ready to go. We packed everything that is staying here and will put all of our luggage in one room. Michelle and I are on the second floor and the storage room is on the fifth floor. I went with Henry to inform the others and he asked Ron and Neil to bring our luggage up when they come for the key. I thought that was pretty nice and will ... don't know what I was saying because Ron just came in and carried our bags up to the fifth floor. He has redeemed himself somewhat. Looks like we are pretty much ready to go. I have just a couple of things to pack that I am taking with me and then we are set. I sacrificed my extra pair of shoes for the laptop. It was a no-brainer. I couldn't leave my baby here.

I believe we will check in to a hotel sometime tomorrow but I don't know if it will be before or after a day of sightseeing. We will be at our next destination for two nights. I believe that might be the longest time we will be in one spot. Professor Chen recommended that we pack light. I can't be much lighter unless I leave the laptop here, which I would rather not do. I can leave behind clothing and my book if it comes to that. Hopefully it won't. More when we arrive somewhere with an Internet connection.

Shoot

I had written a very eloquent and lovely post about my adventures today. It was fascinating and riveting. Award winning blog post. I even spell-checked. I never spell check. It confirmed at various points that it was saving. I clicked publish and the stupid thing asked me to login. Grrrrr.

I had a good day. I bought some black pearl earrings that were too expensive but that I love. They will be my one extravagant purchase. The market was really cool and I will definitely return when we come back to Beijing. We are leaving tomorrow evening to travel to Xi'an and other parts unknown. I am most excited about the Shaolin Temple but am generally ready to see something besides Beijing.

I may post more about the day's events later. I am too emotionally distraught right now.

Mystery solved.. maybe

Today was a free day so the first thing I did was call Craig. No particular reason just to say hello and check in. The time delay was pretty bad. I had to wait at least five seconds for him to respond to my questions. It was cheap though and relatively easy so don't be surprised if you receive a phone call from me at 8:00 or 9:00 at night. I was thinking that we had spoken for about ten minutes and the final bill was 9 Yuan so I'm guessing 1 Yuan per minute. That's about $0.14 US so pretty cheap.

After the phone call I went off to find breakfast. I went into the large cafeteria on campus and one of the pancakey, eggy, green vegetable-y round things and tried a little loaf from the bakery section. The round thing was pretty good except it was a bit greasy - most things in the cafeteria are - but the bakery thing just wasn't good. So far I have not been impressed with the Chinese ability to master sweets. The consistency was wrong, it had very little flavor and it also managed to be somewhat greasy.

After my scrumptious breakfast I started looking for the four people who had visited ETSU in January. I got lucky pretty quickly and found the one who spoke the most English - Hu Jian. He recognized me immediately and remembered my name. I had run into one of the others on the street so he may have had advance warning that I was on campus but I know the other one (Ma Shilai) actually remembered my name so I was pretty impressed. He called two of the others into his office (I would learn later that the fourth was off-campus) and we chatted until lunchtime. They looked at my itinerary and wanted to know if I had chosen the other places we will visit. I explained that Professor Xiong and had chosen and they told me that the other places were "just so-so" not beautiful. They showed me some places where I should go shopping, told me which buses I should take to get to the subway and even wrote out the Chinese for some of it for me. I gave them the gifts I had brought from Martin Guitar (thank you, Bill) they seemed a little confused. I tried to explain but I'm not sure they completely understood. They had translators the entire time they were at ETSU but Karen and I discovered that they could speak English. Still, their English is a bit sketchy. Much, much better than my Chinese but sketchy nonetheless. I have all their cell phone numbers and am to call them anytime if I need anything. Everyone here has been so nice.

We went to lunch after and I ate in the faculty cafeteria for the first time. The faculty cafeteria is much better and cleaner than the student cafeterias on campus. The student cafeterias look like some of the less than desirable Chinese restaurants at home. The worst part is that you come out smelling like that. Not good when the queasies hit and you can't stand to smell yourself. I digress. They were chiding me for not choosing the right foods. They said they Chinese eat mostly meat and vegetables for lunch and my plate had mostly bread. This was true because the bread products are the easiest to identify, least likely to cause regret when you discover that you have eaten pig's ear and also least likely to cause stomach problems later. They insisted that I was skinny and brought back a tray of various meats and vegetables for me. I ate several of the dumplings but had no desire to eat the other unknowns. Oh! Almost forgot. I had potatoes and carrots! They were cooked in a very innocuous brown sauce. Never thought I would be so happy to see a carrot.

Came back to the room after lunch to drop off some things I had purchased at the Kwik-e-mart and awakened my roommate. She and I have very different time schedules. I try to be respectful and not get up too early. I didn't worry about waking her today though. She woke me up when she came in at 5 a.m. so it didn't seem unreasonable for me to wake her at noon. Dropped off my stuff and had planned to head for some open air markets nearby but became distracted and stopped off in the little park area on campus. You can read more about that at the end of the post.

Henry had asked me to meet with one of his students who had some questions about how her computer skills might transfer in America at 2:00 so I headed off to the Wu Mart to kill some time. Bought some more "wheat digestive biscuits" and just poked around looking at all the foods I hope I will never eat. Something smelled really, really fishy. Like bad fishy. Should probably explain the Wu Mart. It is mostly a grocery store but this particular Wu Mart has a small section at the front of the store where they sell clothing and various electronic devices. I just like cruising the Wu Mart and looking at all the vegetables and strange meats. The Chinese have different food handling procedures than we do. Eggs and meat are not necessarily refrigerated. I went to the Wu Mart earlier in the week just after they opened and saw several Chinese women rummaging through a bin filled with chicken. I guess they were choosing the best pieces. Each woman left with a little bag full of various parts. Legs and thighs seemed most popular.

Shopped up back at the dorm right at 2:00 to find Michelle explaining to Liu Yaxi that I wasn't there. Many apologies and then off to find a classroom where I could look at her work and she could ask whatever questions were on her mind. She is a sophomore at NCUT and will be attending Cal Poly in the fall. She is currently an interior design major but wants to change to architecture. She has basically taught herself how to use AutoCAD and wondered if her skills would be in line with the American students. I'm sure it won't be long before she completely surpasses her American counterparts. She was going to spend the summer learning more. She spoke English very well but it seems she may struggle in the classroom initially. We had a little trouble understanding one another.

Tried to find the open air market after meeting with her and just confirmed that I would be completely lost if dropped into the middle of China. It should have taken me 15 minutes (although I didn't realize this when I left) to get there. I walked for two hours. I finally found it but the hours are from 5:30 to noon. Not sure if I will fool with it again. Although I know where it is now so it may be a nice walk one morning.

Went to Henry's class at 6:30 to make myself available for questions. They were not a talkative bunch. Henry eventually coaxed a few questions out of them and we talked for about 30 minutes. I stopped at the Qwik-e-mart afterward for dinner. No more Chinese for me today. I am eating only American junk food. I have a Fanta orange soda (aside from tea this is the only caffeine I have had in China), a Snickers bar and I couldn't decide between French chicken, Italian red sauce, and Mexican tomato Lay's chips so I just went with the "American Classic Flavor." I will have a few wheat digestive biscuits in a little while. I don't know if they help my digestion or not but they claim to and they taste pretty good so I have been eating the heck out of them. Probably packed full of sugar and MSG. No pictures today so I'm going to read some American news and then settle down with a book. For those of you who don't know, I am posting pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmyyrraa/. They are currently up to date.

The solved mystery:
Whenever we are out walking or visiting tourist sites the Chinese invariably look at our faces and then immediately look at our feet. They only do it to the women in the group and they do it to all of us. We thought maybe we were committing some Chinese foot faux pas. Many of the Chinese women were little stockings regardless of the type of shoes they are wearing. I thought maybe they were offended by our naked feet but many of the young girls on campus wear sandals without stockings so that didn't seem right. I asked Liu Yaxi today why people look at our feet. The size? No, she said, my feet are bigger than yours. She said she thinks perhaps it is because of the very colorful painting. She said many of the younger women now have colorful toes but mine are more colorful. So it is my Cover Girl "fuchsia girl" nail polish or I am committing a horrible foot faux pas and she was just too polite to say anything.

Tomorrow is the second Chinese traditional handicraft day. I think Henry said we will make the red knots you see everywhere. I hope it goes better than my paper cut butterfly-dragon. We then visit the Temple of Heaven and the Hongqiao Market. My friends told me to beware of fakes at the market.

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Written this morning in my notebook...
I was headed off to go shopping in the open air market across from the nearby Sam's Club but was easily distracted by the music playing over the loud speakers on the buildings on campus. I had imagined something more sinister would echo through the campus when these loudspeakers were used. Perhaps that has been the case in times past but not today. Today they are playing sort of sweet bordering on sappy English pop music. Well pop music sung in English, I can't recognize the song or the voice. It seems to echo the mood on campus today. Finals end this week and the seniors will be graduating soon. It is sunny today and warm but not quite hot. The sun beats down and my fair skin heats up quickly making it feel warmer than it is. There is a cool gentle breeze blowing. It seems like a perfect early summer day in Beijing.

Sometimes it feels a little strange to have people talking all around you but not understand a word. Mostly it is perfect for the introverted Myra. There is no need to be polite beyond a smile and the occasional Ni hao! I almost wish I could speak to one of the students today because the mood on campus is just so much lighter; it seems to invite conversation.

So I stopped off in the park under some pine trees to listen to the music, listen to the birds sing and feel the nice breeze. The little area is very pleasant but small. There is an older Chinese woman walking short laps around the low walls that are perfect for sitting and reading, writing or studying. It is impossible to tell her age. Her face suggests that she is only 50 or so but she has gray hair and walks as if she is much older. It doesn't matter either way.

The music has stopped and the spell has been broken a bit. I wasn't enjoying the music but am said that it is gone. I suppose I just needed to hear some music in English. The woman has sped up her walking and I can now hear the young girl sitting about 20 feet away who is reciting something in English. I'm too far away and her English is not good enough to understand what she is saying.

My definition of clean has changed. I am wearing the same skirt I wore a couple of days ago. It seemed fine when I put it on but I just looked down and realized that it is covered in dust and dirt. It is impossible to be clean here. I had a book sitting on the shelf next to the window in our dorm room that I hadn't touched for about three days. When I picked it up this morning there was a layer of dirt and sandy grit. My skirt has that same layer. I dropped off a laundry bag full of clothes this morning with the very pleasant Chinese woman who works in the apartment/dorm. I guess I will need to give her another load tomorrow so that I can be moderately clean for our trip. I brought all khaki and light tan clothing because I thought it would be easier to create outfits. Didn't realize that I should have packed for dirt instead of flexibility. I'm sure my bottom will be filthy when I get up.

Oh yeah. Spell is broken alright. I just felt something fall onto my head. I reach up thinking that a pine needle has fallen into my hair. Umm no. Not even bird poop.. Worse. I have a big blob of pine sap in my hair. Lovely.
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The miscellaneous ramblings of a silly American in Beijing. I can tell you from experience that wet wipes do not remove sap from hair.

The Summer Palace

Those emperors and empress dowagers sure knew how to create living quarters. We went to the Forbidden City yesterday (Monday, June 2) and today visited the Summer Palace. The Forbidden City was cool. I guess the first part is supposed to be impressive and show everyone how wonderful and powerful the emperor and his kingdom were. I think they did that. It was fairly easy to imagine what it might have been like. The main hall was closed for renovation (preparations for the Olympics around every corner) but we saw the other halls.

I think the best part of the Forbidden City for me was the area that he created to just hang out with his wives. I think the wives probably got the short end of the stick though. Their house wasn't all that big - definitely not big enough for 72 of them. It was nice and peaceful in the garden except for the fact that there were thousands of Chinese tourists and a ton of Western tourists. I definitely did not see all 9,999 rooms but they didn't let us enter any of the buildings. I'm sure they were all there.

One of Aubrey Lee's main reasons for coming was to give a series of lectures about American business. I don't know any of the details other than the plans were not set in stone and they scrambled a bit to prepare for him when he arrived. I think that's fair. At any rate, he was asked to give one of his lectures to a group of Chinese students last night. The plans for this changed a bit but our student guide cleared things up when she called the office to find out where our classroom was supposed to be today. I was also invited to attend the dinner before his lecture during the call.

I will admit that I did not want to attend the dinner. They can be a bit intimidating and I just wanted to upload pictures and write in my blog. I figure eventually I will be lucid enough to publish a decent blog post. I felt obligated and Jessica seemed genuinely happy to not be the only ones going so I agreed to go to the dinner. It was actually quite good and I think I am getting better at the whole big dinner thing. I can't remember if I explained this or not so briefly, the Chinese like to provide big meals for special guests. There is usually a separate room with a large round table. The table is set formally and there have been a couple of servers at the ones we have attended. In the center of the table is a glass lazy Susan. Lots and lots of plates of food are put on the lazy Susan and you keep turning and eating. I think traditionally you keep drinking, too.

Jessica and Aubrey were at last night's meal, of course, and three Chinese hosts. One of the hosts was the professor for whom Aubrey was lecturing. He spoke limited Chinese. There was another male host who business card was only in Chinese so I have no clue who he was and a female who was not introduced and did not give a business card. He main purpose seemed to be to explain to them in Chinese what we were saying (although she never spoke any herself) and to serve us when the servers stepped out. She later attended the lecture but I don't know a thing about her. The host kept trying to bottoms-up everyone. Jessica managed to always get out of it but I went along with both of the male hosts, although only one time each. Chinese beer is weaker than the tea. You would have to drink a lot to even notice.

Aubrey's lecture went well, the students had lots of good questions, it was a successful night. Oh yes, our morning lecture, almost forgot. Our lecture that morning had been about the Chinese economy. It was one of the more interesting lectures for me. The culture and history is all very good but (1) we have had a lot of that and (2) I don't know that I have the heart of a true business person but it does interest me. I think I need to do some more reading when I return home. The professor touched on Hu Jintao's plan for the future but I would like to read more. I think the world will be watching China over the next few years. Will be interesting to see how things continue to develop.

This morning (Tuesday, June 3) our lecture was not a lecture but a Chinese handicraft activity! Very exciting. We made traditional Chinese paper cuttings. We made the double happiness character and a butterfly. The image to the right is what paper cutting should look like. Mine was pretty pitiful. Even the character, which was very geometric, just looked like a mess of crooked lines. My butterfly somehow looked evil. The Chinese use these to decorate doors and windows during holidays and festivals. Mine might be useful for scaring away that Nian monster guy we heard about during our traditional Chinese festivals lecture. Probably not good for much else.

Okay, finally, the topic of the post - the Summer Palace. The Forbidden City was cool and all that but the Summer Palace is definitely where I would want to be. We had a cool, almost cold day today. It started off rainy and then just stayed cool and foggy. I was a bit disappointed at first because it seemed just completely wrong weather for the visit. Except for the fact that it was difficult to take photos it was perfect. I think the experience makes up for the photos in my mind. We were walking through all the woods and you could smell clean, wet dirt and fresh cedar trees. It was amazing. There were several tourists there but it is enormous and the weather wasn't perfect so there were many times when it was just our group.

I only wish that I had bought a map so that I could know everything we did. I'm sure the information is available so it will give me something to do when I return home and am thinking about all the things I miss in China. My camera died after we visited the Buddha temple (where I took pictures before realizing we weren't supposed to - I'm sure the two events are related) so there aren't as many pictures as there would have been on flickr. Probably just as well though because I already have a ton. If the White Cloud Temple were in the Summer Palace it would be my favorite place in China so far. Since it is not the Summer Palace will have to settle for a very close second. I could easily spend a day there just breathing.

May 31 - Learning to Cook Chinese Food and other adventures

The day started with our typical lesson but this time the lesson was described as an activity and our activity was to learn to cook Chinese food. I was excited about this prospect when I saw the itinerary in Johnson City, not so thrilled with it yesterday. I have decided that I can only eat one Chinese meal per day. I think Bill was right when he suggested that it may have more to do with eating in what are essentially restaurants all the time as it does Chinese food. Also, I don't think it is the food itself necessarily. Although the food can be a little rich I am pretty much always tired so food of any kind would be less tempting.

So we met out two student guides in front of our building and they took us to the cafeteria in the building where Henry is staying. One of the guides was Vickie who took us to Tianenmen Square and will be going with us to the Forbidden City tomorrow. This is the same building where they brought us the first day and fed us the huge banquet. They explained that each of us would get to help cook a meal and then someone would help the chef personally. This seemed to fall apart somewhere during the meal because nothing like this ever happened. We were all invited to help just whenever we wanted. There was also lots of discussion in Chinese and a lot of standing around initially - perhaps they didn't know to expect us on this day.

I have only ever seen glimpses of a restaurant kitchen through an open door. It was an experience for me just to be in the kitchen much less one that was preparing Chinese food. Our first task was for someone to stir a flour and water mixture. Young student Ron was more than eager for the task. He apparently didn't do it quite right though. He started mixing and changed direction. Both girls shouted at him, "One direction only!" It would seem this is important. The young apprentice or sous chef took over and ended up adding an egg, scallions, carrots, and various spices, including MSG. The girls dutifully called out each ingredient. He then poured the mixture onto a griddle looking device, put the lid down, flipped once and pulled them off. They were really, really good and were only slightly thicker than a crepe. I watched him put in all the ingredients and it didn't seem complicated at all. I'm not sure I could remember everything that went one but this would be one to fix at home.

Next was dumpling making. Neil had helped to mix and knead the dough before we started the little crepe things. It was time to pinch the dough into little squares and make the dumpling holder. Only the guys attempted the pinching part but none of them every got it right. The only criteria I could really see was size but I don't think any of them worked. After pinching, the dough was rolled out. They had a neat little technique where you have a mini rolling pin in one hand and you turn the dumpling with the other to make a round dough shape. Vickie was quite good at it and gave me a personal lesson but I never really got it. I was able to roll it out like a pie dough and that seemed to work okay. It was better than nothing. The dumplings were then stuffed with a sausage mixture and, once again, the guys were tasked with forming the dumpling. No one ever got that either. We were whisked away from the dumplings and taken toward the front of the kitchen - I think people had started coming in for lunch and they were tired of us.

There were three huge wok stations with gas controlled burners. I should have brought my camera but I didn't think they would want pictures. (They didn't seem to mind Jessica taking pictures so I should I have brought it.) There were two guys with tall chef hats and dragons embroidered on their chef shirts. I am assuming they were more important in some way. The less friendly of these two showed us how to stir fry. He made kung pao chicken, shredded pork with little tofu wrappers, and sweet and sour pork - dishes that Westerners typically order I'm thinking.

These would later become our dishes for lunch, which we had out in the dining room. And, where our fearless leader came strolling through flanked by two young and pretty Chinese students. I learned today that he put them on the spot and asked them if they would take him to lunch. I'm sure no pressure was necessary and they were all too willing to have lunch with their professor...

Later in the afternoon we went to the Urban Planning Hall, which was a little more interesting than it sounds, but not much. Mostly it was just because everything was in Chinese. It was very techy looking with cool effects but we couldn't read any of the signs to know what we were looking at.

Then on to Wangfujing, the biggest shopping street in Beijing. It will probably come as a shock to most of you, but I really wasn't interested in shopping. It isn't fun shopping for me. There are people absolutely everywhere. Yes, it was Saturday, big city, big shopping area, etc. Neil said it best - it is like Christmas shopping every day. I hate the crowds at Christmas and intentionally shop late to avoid them. I was also feeling tired and it probably wasn't the best time to hit the huge shopping area. I poked around a little while and actually considered purchasing a few things but couldn't quite figure out how (this was in a department store) so I wandered back onto the street and wondered what had happened to my shopping urges. I was feeling a little depressed when I ran into Aubrey and Neil. They also seemed depressed but perhaps for different reasons.

Aubrey and I decided it would be a good time to try KFC in Beijing. Surely that would lift our spirits. We found the KFC and climbed to the second floor where one would presumably purchase food. To my dismay there were no mashed potatoes or biscuits, not even baked beans. There were strange looking prawn sandwiches and bowls of gruel (probably not really but I was feeling depressed again.) There did seem to be buckets of chicken but I was already alarmed about this after one of the Chinese students commented that the KFCs in America were not as good as the ones in Beijing. Off we went to find the McDonald's.

Craig and I have been avoiding McDonald's since our diets in the fall. It's the french fries. I can do without the food but the french fries are like black tar heroin to me. I become addicted immediately and it's all I can think about. It is so nice to know exactly what you are getting though and be relatively happy in the end. I would probably rather have something but McDonald's will certainly do nicely. I was immediately restored to a feeling of contentment and well-being. Aaaahhhh McDonald's. At home it would make my stomach hurt. Here it is like mother's milk.

I have discovered that I am almost definitely an American. I have suspect this for a while but feel that I have confirmed as much. We toured the Buddhist and Confucian temples on Friday. There were a ton of Westerners at the Buddhist temple. It was very touristy, with shops located inside the temple walls. The Europeans just look so.. European. The Germans tend to look very German and while I realize that I probably look very American it is somehow comforting to me to know this. I'm not homesick but I will appreciate home more when I return. A less than clean bathroom in Wal-Mart can't even come close to the less than desirable public restrooms here.

Which leads me to wonder about the small children. I haven't snapped a photo yet because I am still reluctant to take photos of people unless they are in the distance and unidentifiable (or they don't realize I am taking their photo.) I am happy in my American-ness but I don't want to be a typical American to the Chinese. [As an aside, they often seem genuinely surprised when I look them in the eye and smile. They will either continue to stare with a blank expression, look away, or do a double take and then smile back.] For anyone who hasn't seen this I have posted a picture from a very good website: http://www.beijingtraveltips.com. Many of the small children have little slits in their pants. I have seen everything on this one. I have seen children without slits, very young children with slits and older children with slits.

I read that this is one of the things officially being discouraged as Beijing prepares for the Olympics. The official discouragement is not working and it is not difficult to find. I understand the practicality for older children. They just sort of squat and go in the street when they are ready. What I don't understand is the very small children. I have seen diapers in the store and have even seen diapers poking out the slit on some children but I have also seen babies with the slit pants. It would seem that they are not old enough to be potty trained yet or even trained to squat in the street yet. How on earth does that work?? I have not been so fortunate as to witness the actual child slit pants squat. Aubrey has been lucky enough to see it twice.

Since starting I have interrupted myself to post images to flickr, have talked to Jessica, Henry and Michelle. Can't remember what I was going to post here. This is probably enough for now. Tomorrow we will visit the Forbidden City so I must rest.