fourth update from china
november 23,2006
Da jia hao, zhu nimen gang en jie kaui le! (Hey
everyone, wishing you a happy thanksgiving!)
Yes, I know its been about a month since I last wrote
to you, half of which I spent on a field trip to
Southern China (Guizhou and Sichuan provinces to be
exact). In the two weeks before I left on the trip
nothing out of the ordinary happened, so I’ll get
right to the trip. Actually, I decided one thing was
noteworthy, and it is this: I cut my hair. Well, I
didn’t, but I got it cut in a small salon here in
Beijing and now my hair is less that shoulder length.
You’ll see pictures later…
We left Beijing on Sunday, November 5th on a 29-hour
train ride, headed toward Guiyang, the capital of
Guizhou province. The train ride was really quite
enthralling for the first five hours, but the rest of
that journey lacked thrill. On Monday night, we
arrived in Guiyang and on Tuesday morning we drove out
to Gaopo, and stopped at a Miao village called Rao Rao
(a wee fact: Miao in Chinese means ‘rice seedling’).
The Miao people, better known as Hmong, are very sweet
and hospitable farmer people who make livings by
growing rice and corn and chili peppers. We lived in
the village for a night, about 2-5 of us students in
one stone-cold wooden house.
Here’s what we had:
- color T.V.
- a cat (to whom I was allergic)
- two plump sows and a cow, all of which shared a hut
with our only toilet: a hole in the ground.
- for lunch: rice, uncooked meat, sunflower seeds and
odd oil soup
- for dinner: rice, uncooked meat, sunflower seeds and
odd oil soup
- for breakfast: rice, uncooked meat, sunflower seeds
and odd oil soup
Here’s what we didn’t have:
- running water
- slippers
So, the day we arrived, we also took a nice steep hike
down into a canyon, frolicked in the river, and hiked
back up. I had a glorious time climbing rocks and
basking in the sun’s rays while calmly breathing in
the fresh mountain air (as you can tell, it was quite
the treat to get away from Beijing’s sunny, grey
skies).
On Wednesday the 8th, we departed from the dear little
Rao Rao township and went to see Jiading cave burial.
There were tons of wooden boxes, stacked on little
scaffoldings, which we climbed over as we entered the
cave. More rock climbing. It was quite enjoyable, but
everyone was extremely tired from the hike from the
day before and from not being able to sleep due to the
wooden beds and constant, collective crowing of the
town’s roosters all through the night.
Then we drove about four hours to the city of Kaili
(where we stayed the night), stopping along the way at
a few interesting sites.
The next day we drove out of Kaili to hike through the
mountains and rice patties to another Miao village
called Gaoyang. We spent two nights in different
families’ homes. The second day, we hiked through the
patties down to the river for a picnic that consisted
of rice porridge. Some village children accompanied us
and caught some large and interesting bugs for us
Americans to gawk at. At the water’s edge, and I took
the opportunity to bathe my limbs and hair and face;
it was quite refreshing, and quite necessary… Both
nights in Gaoyang, us students congregated in a little
plaza and the village children came running to us and
examined our ways. The poked us and we tickled them
and they taught us some of their Miao dialect and we
taught them the ‘Macarena’. Then, they brought out a
giant pot and hung it from a giant wooden tripod and
started to drum. All of the children and some adults
(no middle age people because they migrate to the
cities to earn money to send back home to the
villages) began to dance and they taught us their
traditional dances, which contained very few steps,
but was still hard for us to catch on to. The second
evening was the same, except there was a bonfire in
the center of the plaza, which we danced around. The
women wore their traditional black, collared,
embroidered, velvet shirts and the men played their
traditional horn/reed pipe instruments. There were a
few young men, just a few, who were a bit inebriated
from the “mi jiu” or ‘rice wine’ (which us, students,
were forbidden to try), and they were trying their
best to convince some of my friends to dance with him
and his friends. But, it was getting late and the next
day we had a several hour hike, so we told the nice,
young men, “xianzai bu xiang tiao wu, xie xie ni”
(“right now we don’t really want to dance, thanks
though!”) and scurried home to our wooden homes with
wooden squat toilets and wooden beds.
Saturday, November 11th, we hiked three hours out of
Gaoyang, bussed to Leishan for lunch and then bussed
to Guiyang for the night. The next day we were to take
a nice 17-hour train ride to Chengdu, Sichuan
province.
On Monday, we arrived at around 9 a.m. and later in
the day we visited a “sister-school” of Er Fu Zhong
(our ‘middle’ school in Beijing). There were special
activities that we participated in. First, we visited
some English classes and played charades, then we were
allowed to pick from cooking, handcrafts, music, and
dancing. I chose to check out the dancing with some of
my friends. What the next two hours held for us
foreigners, we hadn’t a clue. The dance class was
extremely different from anything class I have taken;
it wasn’t really a dance class at all. But I’ll tell
you what it was, it was bizarre. The dance teacher
looked like ‘Chinese Pop-Star Barbie’ and she tried to
teach us a combination of hip-hop and modern to
Britney Spears’ “Oops I Did It Again”. IT WAS SOO ODD…
Anyways, the next day we visited Le Shan Da Fo (Le
Shan Great Buddha). This is what it is:
- dating back to the Tang Dynasty
- in the Guinness Book of World Records
- 72 meters tall
- big enough for 7 adults to sit comfortably on its
big toenail
This is what it is not:
- small.
That night we were brought to see a show in Chengdu.
There were many exhibitions: traditional opera,
hand-shadow puppets, Chinese puppets, acrobatics, and
instrument solos. It was all very amazing. They also
offered massages (RMB50 for half of an hour, that’s
about $6.25).
The next day, we visited a cooking school, the only
one in China. We got to dress up in white robes and
chef’s hats and a chef demonstrated how to make some
specialty dishes from the Sichuan Province. Then we
got to try cooking. It was rather amusing watching
boarding school kids throw chunks of meat into a
sizzling pan and make all of the oil splash
everywhere. The rest of the day we had off and we all
subconsciously gravitated to the Starbucks in the
downtown area and to the foreign language bookstore
and for dinner we gravitated towards Pizza Hut. I feel
that we had our share of gravitation.
Thursday, November 16th, we left Chengdu on a 26-hour
train ride headed ‘home’ to Beijing. I slept for about
25.5/26 (that’s a fraction by the way) of the journey
and for some reason I managed to feel even more
fatigued that I had started.
Oh, what an experience…I feel that the most worthwhile
part of the trip was staying in the Miao villages.
Honestly, what I though I was getting into when I
applied for this program was going to be what I
experienced in these villages; not the never-ending
line of English and history quizzes and tests and
papers. Of course schoolwork is inevitable, but I
never expected it to be to the extent that it is. But
what can I do? Just accept it, and be thankful that at
least I don’t have to hike up and down mountains
everyday to put a meal in front of my family (although
I’m sure with enough optimism, I could get accustomed
to that lifestyle too).
Today, was Thanksgiving and instead of regular classes
(we still had Chinese) we went to a French restaurant,
all 60 of us plus 15 (ish) teachers, and had a nice
feast of pumpkin soup with scallions, turkey breast
with cranberry sauce and a sweet potato cake, and
apple pie for finish it off. It was a loverly venue
and we all enjoyed the classy-ness.
Well, I think I have said enough (I have definitely
spent enough time writing this instead of memorizing
all of the provinces’ capitals for tomorrow’s history
quiz).
I hope that all of your Thanksgivings were cozy and
memorable.
I hope that school and life and work and dogs are all
doing well.
I hope everyone is doing his or her best to
un-contribute to global warming.
Love to everyone,
Zaijian (bye bye)
Gabi
Da jia hao, zhu nimen gang en jie kaui le! (Hey
everyone, wishing you a happy thanksgiving!)
Yes, I know its been about a month since I last wrote
to you, half of which I spent on a field trip to
Southern China (Guizhou and Sichuan provinces to be
exact). In the two weeks before I left on the trip
nothing out of the ordinary happened, so I’ll get
right to the trip. Actually, I decided one thing was
noteworthy, and it is this: I cut my hair. Well, I
didn’t, but I got it cut in a small salon here in
Beijing and now my hair is less that shoulder length.
You’ll see pictures later…
We left Beijing on Sunday, November 5th on a 29-hour
train ride, headed toward Guiyang, the capital of
Guizhou province. The train ride was really quite
enthralling for the first five hours, but the rest of
that journey lacked thrill. On Monday night, we
arrived in Guiyang and on Tuesday morning we drove out
to Gaopo, and stopped at a Miao village called Rao Rao
(a wee fact: Miao in Chinese means ‘rice seedling’).
The Miao people, better known as Hmong, are very sweet
and hospitable farmer people who make livings by
growing rice and corn and chili peppers. We lived in
the village for a night, about 2-5 of us students in
one stone-cold wooden house.
Here’s what we had:
- color T.V.
- a cat (to whom I was allergic)
- two plump sows and a cow, all of which shared a hut
with our only toilet: a hole in the ground.
- for lunch: rice, uncooked meat, sunflower seeds and
odd oil soup
- for dinner: rice, uncooked meat, sunflower seeds and
odd oil soup
- for breakfast: rice, uncooked meat, sunflower seeds
and odd oil soup
Here’s what we didn’t have:
- running water
- slippers
So, the day we arrived, we also took a nice steep hike
down into a canyon, frolicked in the river, and hiked
back up. I had a glorious time climbing rocks and
basking in the sun’s rays while calmly breathing in
the fresh mountain air (as you can tell, it was quite
the treat to get away from Beijing’s sunny, grey
skies).
On Wednesday the 8th, we departed from the dear little
Rao Rao township and went to see Jiading cave burial.
There were tons of wooden boxes, stacked on little
scaffoldings, which we climbed over as we entered the
cave. More rock climbing. It was quite enjoyable, but
everyone was extremely tired from the hike from the
day before and from not being able to sleep due to the
wooden beds and constant, collective crowing of the
town’s roosters all through the night.
Then we drove about four hours to the city of Kaili
(where we stayed the night), stopping along the way at
a few interesting sites.
The next day we drove out of Kaili to hike through the
mountains and rice patties to another Miao village
called Gaoyang. We spent two nights in different
families’ homes. The second day, we hiked through the
patties down to the river for a picnic that consisted
of rice porridge. Some village children accompanied us
and caught some large and interesting bugs for us
Americans to gawk at. At the water’s edge, and I took
the opportunity to bathe my limbs and hair and face;
it was quite refreshing, and quite necessary… Both
nights in Gaoyang, us students congregated in a little
plaza and the village children came running to us and
examined our ways. The poked us and we tickled them
and they taught us some of their Miao dialect and we
taught them the ‘Macarena’. Then, they brought out a
giant pot and hung it from a giant wooden tripod and
started to drum. All of the children and some adults
(no middle age people because they migrate to the
cities to earn money to send back home to the
villages) began to dance and they taught us their
traditional dances, which contained very few steps,
but was still hard for us to catch on to. The second
evening was the same, except there was a bonfire in
the center of the plaza, which we danced around. The
women wore their traditional black, collared,
embroidered, velvet shirts and the men played their
traditional horn/reed pipe instruments. There were a
few young men, just a few, who were a bit inebriated
from the “mi jiu” or ‘rice wine’ (which us, students,
were forbidden to try), and they were trying their
best to convince some of my friends to dance with him
and his friends. But, it was getting late and the next
day we had a several hour hike, so we told the nice,
young men, “xianzai bu xiang tiao wu, xie xie ni”
(“right now we don’t really want to dance, thanks
though!”) and scurried home to our wooden homes with
wooden squat toilets and wooden beds.
Saturday, November 11th, we hiked three hours out of
Gaoyang, bussed to Leishan for lunch and then bussed
to Guiyang for the night. The next day we were to take
a nice 17-hour train ride to Chengdu, Sichuan
province.
On Monday, we arrived at around 9 a.m. and later in
the day we visited a “sister-school” of Er Fu Zhong
(our ‘middle’ school in Beijing). There were special
activities that we participated in. First, we visited
some English classes and played charades, then we were
allowed to pick from cooking, handcrafts, music, and
dancing. I chose to check out the dancing with some of
my friends. What the next two hours held for us
foreigners, we hadn’t a clue. The dance class was
extremely different from anything class I have taken;
it wasn’t really a dance class at all. But I’ll tell
you what it was, it was bizarre. The dance teacher
looked like ‘Chinese Pop-Star Barbie’ and she tried to
teach us a combination of hip-hop and modern to
Britney Spears’ “Oops I Did It Again”. IT WAS SOO ODD…
Anyways, the next day we visited Le Shan Da Fo (Le
Shan Great Buddha). This is what it is:
- dating back to the Tang Dynasty
- in the Guinness Book of World Records
- 72 meters tall
- big enough for 7 adults to sit comfortably on its
big toenail
This is what it is not:
- small.
That night we were brought to see a show in Chengdu.
There were many exhibitions: traditional opera,
hand-shadow puppets, Chinese puppets, acrobatics, and
instrument solos. It was all very amazing. They also
offered massages (RMB50 for half of an hour, that’s
about $6.25).
The next day, we visited a cooking school, the only
one in China. We got to dress up in white robes and
chef’s hats and a chef demonstrated how to make some
specialty dishes from the Sichuan Province. Then we
got to try cooking. It was rather amusing watching
boarding school kids throw chunks of meat into a
sizzling pan and make all of the oil splash
everywhere. The rest of the day we had off and we all
subconsciously gravitated to the Starbucks in the
downtown area and to the foreign language bookstore
and for dinner we gravitated towards Pizza Hut. I feel
that we had our share of gravitation.
Thursday, November 16th, we left Chengdu on a 26-hour
train ride headed ‘home’ to Beijing. I slept for about
25.5/26 (that’s a fraction by the way) of the journey
and for some reason I managed to feel even more
fatigued that I had started.
Oh, what an experience…I feel that the most worthwhile
part of the trip was staying in the Miao villages.
Honestly, what I though I was getting into when I
applied for this program was going to be what I
experienced in these villages; not the never-ending
line of English and history quizzes and tests and
papers. Of course schoolwork is inevitable, but I
never expected it to be to the extent that it is. But
what can I do? Just accept it, and be thankful that at
least I don’t have to hike up and down mountains
everyday to put a meal in front of my family (although
I’m sure with enough optimism, I could get accustomed
to that lifestyle too).
Today, was Thanksgiving and instead of regular classes
(we still had Chinese) we went to a French restaurant,
all 60 of us plus 15 (ish) teachers, and had a nice
feast of pumpkin soup with scallions, turkey breast
with cranberry sauce and a sweet potato cake, and
apple pie for finish it off. It was a loverly venue
and we all enjoyed the classy-ness.
Well, I think I have said enough (I have definitely
spent enough time writing this instead of memorizing
all of the provinces’ capitals for tomorrow’s history
quiz).
I hope that all of your Thanksgivings were cozy and
memorable.
I hope that school and life and work and dogs are all
doing well.
I hope everyone is doing his or her best to
un-contribute to global warming.
Love to everyone,
Zaijian (bye bye)
Gabi