TIBET

Tibet: A land of ever-evolving landscapes with mosques whose minarets pierce the azure skies, bright green pastures filled with horses and prayer flags, soaring snowcapped mountains, golden Buddhist temples, wandering nomads, yak butter tea, sandalwood incense, chanting monks, spinning prayer wheels and ethnic Tibetans whose cheeks have been permanently stained an intense red from years of tending to their yaks under the sun. This is where I spent 10 magical days.

A TRIP DOWN SOUTH

Dear Readers,

I deeply apologize for not having updated my blog in such a long time! HOWEVER, what you are about to read will prove to you that I have been too busy to do so. . .

As I sit with my friends in a Tibetan cafe, sipping on Mango lassis, listening to the beating of a drum and smelling the aroma of tangerine incense, we reminisce over our past months in China. Major events such as Chinese New Year, a trip down South and a 5 day immersion in a rural Chinese high school have been the highlights since February.

Just a little update on Beijing:

As we speak, the weather is getting warmer. For example,

1) I am no longer wearing 8 layers of clothing to school anymore.

2) Wednesday was the first day since the long winter, that I rode my bicycle to school.

3) The fruit stands are bursting with bananas, pineapples, strawberries...

4) The lake in the park is no longer frozen

5) The cherry blossoms are blooming

Let me start with my trip to the South of China.

IMAGINE traveling for 3 weeks with some clothes stuffed in your backpack, a camera slung around your neck, no showering, ethnic minority groups, tropical fruit, water buffalos, rice paddies, rafting on the Mekong river, dancing with locals, toufu factories, fabric markets, monks, immersion in a local high school, listening to stories told by old Chinese men and basically having the time of your life!

Because we traveled to about 10 different villages and 5 different cities, I will only describe 3 of my top favorites.

JIAN SHUI: (An entry from my diary)

One morning I went out for a run in the eccentric city of Jian Shui. The streets were bustling with activity as market goers carried large baskets with celery and potatoes spilling out over the edges, and loud music poured out of trendy barbershops. After completing a scavenger hunt, which had brought me to every corner of Jian Shui, I discovered how beautiful the city really was, with its old and modern qualities, stone wells hidden away on side streets, and like Beijing, has old residential hutongs tucked inside the city gates. Apart from some Buddhist temples which the young girl from the dou fu factory told me about, Jian Shui also houses a restored Qing Dynasty mansion of an ancient wealthy family. As I strolled through a weekend market, I spotted an old man with his pants rolled up, and his shirt unbuttoned sitting atop of an old city wall smoking. With camera in hand I jogged atop the stairs, crouching down against the rusty red wall. The moment the man saw me, he sat up, took one last puff of his cigarette, and put it out, ashes falling and showering to the ground below. I put my camera down and walked over to him, eager to ask him some questions about the city and his life here, but like any Grandpa, the old man immediately jumped at the opportunity for conversation, launching into a full story about his childhood and so on. While I didn’t get a word in, I listened enraptured as he described the city and how it had changed over his lifespan. For the next hour or so I sat beside him on the city wall over looking Jian Shui.

MAN LING: (An entry from my diary)

The next week, after hiking through terraced hills and vast tea plantations, we arrived in Man Ling, which is part of Xi Shuang Ban Na, a Dai Autonomous Prefecture, and when translated into Thai, ‘Sipsongpanna’, means twelve thousand rice fields. Man Ling is the home to 112 households, with an estimated population of 608.

All Dai houses are made out of bamboo and are lifted up by stilts, in order to protect them from the floods during the rainy season. The livestock live underneath, and the families on top. Sitting underneath a mosquito net that hung from a rusty nail on one side of the room and draped its way to the other side, we squatted on wooden stools whilst listening to the rustles of our host mother’s beautiful gold and silver traditional Dai dress, as she set down endless trays laden with fruit. I knew I could stay there eating the sumptuous fruit all day, but I convinced myself to venture forth and get a sense of my surroundings.

Outside it was rather deserted; the sun was so warm that the villagers all retreated to their cool homes. To the far East stood a small monastery with apricot colored monk robes draped along the walls. In the centre of the village was a basketball court, where little girls ran around wearing dresses, chewing on sugarcane. To the North there were some old ladies knitting and mending clothes. To the South I found a table of patient men fixated on a game of Mahjong.

JING HONG: (An entry from my diary)

A little further south, lies the capital city of Xi Shuang Ban Na, Jing Hong, which reminded me so much of my home in Bangkok. Under the tropical glaring sun, men behind fruit stands held out wooden sticks with sweet, juicy pieces of pineapple on them, and shouted out the prices of ripe mangos, durians and watermelons. Despite the fact that I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, sweat marks formed under my armpits and I felt my cheeks burning red. Sipping coconut straight from the husk, I walked around an outdoor market, and passed by an elderly woman sitting on a small wooden stool selling tomatoes. Behind her stood another old woman, with mint draped over her shoulders. Smiling and exposing gold caps and beetle nut stained teeth, they posed for my camera.

While we were in Jing Hong, we spent 4 days going to class with students from the local high school. Inside the classrooms of Jing Hong High School, students sleep, listen to music, text on their phones, and to them, the teacher’s voice is on par with the omnipresent drone the flies make as they circuit the room. It was so unlike any school in Beijing!!

Sadly, after 3 weeks of traveling in sunny and stunning rural China, we had to head back to Beijing. And as we landed in Beijing.. it was snowing.

...more to come...

Exploring

Sitting on my windowsill, overlooking a frozen, snow covered lake, and watching birds land on naked trees with no leaves, is very contrastive to my Christmas holiday back in Bangkok. Being home with my family was amazing. And to add to that, being able to lie out in the garden under a scorching sun, eating Thai food, and just relaxing for the first time in months was also amazing! To bring in the new year, we lit lanterns on the beach, made wishes and watched our lanterns float up into the heavens. Returning to Beijing a few days later, my flight was delayed by 6 hours in Shanghai because of the intense snowfall in Beijing. 12 hours later and 50 degrees colder, I was walking over a snowy bridge, carrying my luggage with my baba. Returning home to the smiling faces of my mama and sister, i ate dumplings and then curled into my warm bed. I can tell that 2010 is going to be a wonderful year :)

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First weekend back in Beijing:

Saturday morning after I woke up, I had a bowl of sesame dumplings in a rice alcohol soup (dislike very much), and went to the gym for a little work out session, to help my body get back into shape after eating so many dumplings and noodles!
I came back home, had an Indian style rice dish for lunch, and then went to the bank to exchange my money. After that, I hopped on the subway and decided to be adventurous. I sat on the subway for a while, and then got off at a random stop.

I ended up at a station called 和平门 (he ping men), which to my luck, was a neighborhood full of Hutongs (the old Chinese residential homes). It was a beautiful day with blue skies, snow carving the pavements and a tranquil silence throughout the city. Exploring the Hutongs is my favorite thing to do here in Beijing. I get to practice my Chinese outside out of the classroom, take photos, taste exotic foods, take different modes of transportation etc etc etc.

So after 4 hours of walking around, making friends with meat sellers, playing tag with little girls and boys, asking old woman whether or not they were happy with their China today, tasting food that local chefs offered me, being brought into someone's home to look around and conversing in German with a shop keeper who played Austrian songs on a flute to me, I truly had the best Saturday I have ever had in Beijing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Fall Trip

It all started with a 34-hour train ride consisting of smelly squat toilets, snoring Chinese men, bunk beds, a variety of scenery outside the window, and hours of Chinese conversations.

After nearly 2 days on the train, we finally arrived in the city Xia Men (厦门) which is in Fujian province and is a costal city in southeastern China. We spent our first night exploring our hotel's surrounding neighborhood, eating Korean food, having a well-deserved shower and sleeping on a soft soft bed.

The next morning we woke up and were greeted with warm, sunny weather- something Beijing was lacking. We stepped off the bus into a bustling fish/vegetable market. I've been to many, many markets throughout Southeast Asia, but this was something very different. Right in front of my eyes I watched locals yank the feathers off live birds and then crack their necks. Nevertheless the bowls of shark, eels, frogs, stingray, crabs, rabbits, ducks etc, gave me many photo opportunities.

After another long, 4-hour bus ride, we arrived in the village of Chu Xi. What first struck me were the immense amounts of dried persimmons along the roadside. The next thing that struck me, was the huge, circular, coliseum-like buildings called 土楼 (tulou), which literally means 'soil building' (http://gallery.photo.net/photo/6716646-lg.jpg). These spectacular buildings were going to be our homes for the next two days. I don't really know how to describe where I was, but just imagine a place where chickens are running wild, water buffalos are walking through the rice paddies, cherry blossoms and banana trees are scattered along the landscape, temperatures are warm and everything is very tranquil.

The next day we went to the local Middle School to teach P.E and English. Little boys and girls came up to me and made me sign my name on their school t-shirts and school books. This went on for at least 40 minutes, and by the end, I think every student had Anthea or my Chinese name 赵逸, written on their belongings. Later that day, we returned to our tulous and listened to a talk given by the village president. After that, my friend Lili and I wandered around the village, talking to locals. One hospitable family invited us inside their house, and we spent the afternoon sipping tea, snacking off warm sweet potatoes, and interviewing the old, wrinkly man with a cigarette constantly in his hand.

The next few days are a little blurred because I was sick most of the time. What I remember though is a lot of rain, a ferry ride to an island, an island we could not explore because of the rain, and a night spent sneezing in the hotel.

We left the island the next day, spent a day in a museum and finally boarded yet another train. The following morning, we arrived in 武夷山 (wuyishan), a small tea village in Fujian province. We stayed with host families there, and I fell in love with the little boy. We spent the day quizzing each other on English and Chinese words, joining in with the sisters' game of jump rope and drinking lots and lots of tea! That day, we also hiked through the tea groves.

For dinner, I was the only person who took the risk to eat the chicken feet. VERY unwise, and I was left sick for the next 3 days. Note to self: don't eat chicken feet.

After wuyishan, we were on the road again, but this time heading to a popular city called SuZhou. The train ride the following night was a nightmare; two Chinese men, who had each devoured an entire bottle of whiskey, snored the entire night. By entire night, I mean that I slept one hour at the most. So, feeling very tired at 6am, the embroidery factory and the handicraft centre were a little painful.

We traveled again, this time to the "Venice of china". Canals and red Chinese lanterns outlined this little town. Sadly the town had a power cut, so we could not stay the night, and we headed back to SuZhou. The next few days were spent exploring SuZhou, and then a train ride back to Beijing.

Home sweet home.