Tibet Pt. 2

After a day in Lhasa, we began the long drive across Tibet to Mount Everest. On the way, we stopped man times to take in some of the most beautiful mountain lakes and sky I've ever seen (pics in last post). After a full day of driving, we stopped in Shigatse to rest, then woke up early the next morning to continue on to Everest.

Spending so much time in the care gave us plenty of time to get to know Tara, our tour guide, who grew up living just inside the outermost walls of the Potala Palace (We actually were able to walk by her former house, which is now considered part of the Potala Palace Museum). If my house were snatched away by a foreign government, let's say Mexico for instance, I'd be pretty ticked off and would probably demand reparations in burritos and guacamole. However, the Tibetans know that they don't have the power or representation in government to make demands, so for the most part they just sadly accept things the way they are. Aside from strictly controlling the "Tibet Autonomous Region's" land, the Chinese government also severely limits religious freedom by prohibiting certain holidays, and requiring monks to possess worshipping permits which are hard to come by. Tara told us that formerly, large Palaces such as the Potala and Jokhang could house hundreds, even thousands of monks. Today, those numbers have dwindled down to mere double digits.

However unfairly modern day Tibet is treated by the Chinese government, Tara did recognize that things have certainly been worse before, especially during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution (both among the Communist Party's officially recognized 30% of not-so-great ideas Mao had). During the Great Leap Forward the Tibetan population was instructed to grow rice, which the harsh climate is not at all suited for. As a result, millions of Tibetans starved. However, the worst horrors in Tibet occurred during the Cultural Revolution, when Mao's brainwashed teenage Red Guards destroyed anything they considered traditional or old. The atrocities they committed ranged from destroying the vast majority of Tibetan monasteries to forcing monks and nuns to copulate in public and dig their own graves. Modern day Tibetans, however bitter they may be about the past and current oppression, realize that they're stuck with the Chinese government for the long haul. Their main goal now is to preserve as many aspects of traditional life and religion as they can without losing ground to the government.

One of Tara's biggest gripes about Tibetan life today was the fact that children are all educated in Chinese schools, which instruct classes in Mandarin. Granted, Tibetan children learn their own language first with their families, but a trend leading promising students away from Tibet and to modernized Chinese cities to pursue higher education is a cause for concern. Some return to Tibet to work or teach, but many stay in China and abandon their former home. Our van driver, who was Han Chinese, asked Tara what she was doing in Tibet if she knew she could earn more money outside. Tara tried to explain that it was her home, and that she just belonged there, but the van driver never really understood. That situation in particular was an interesting microcosm of Tibetan religious and traditional values conflicting with the Chinese fixation, even fascination with money and economic opportunity.

I won't say too much about the Dalai Lama. It is forbidden to show or possess his picture in Tibet, and Xinhua News and CCTV label him as a greedy feudalist constantly scheming to take back former serfdom. Most of the Tibetans I talked to were still supportive of him, and very worried about what will happen when the current one dies. When Tibetan monks selected a new Paanchen Lama, the Chinese government swiftly kidnapped him and replaced him with a government approved Paanchen Lama who basically works a deskjob in Beijing. The Tibetan monk-selected Paanchen Lama, assumed to be under house arrest, has not been seen for 13 years...he's my age.

However depressing the situation in Tibet has become, that still didn't take away from the region's natural beauty. When we arrived at Everest in the evening, the sky was perfectly clear, and we gazed in awe at the summit, the tallest point in the world. After many pictures serious and ridiculous (on my Facebook you can see one with us guys posing shirtless and yelling), we climbed into our warm tent, heated by burning yak dung. Surprisingly, it didn't smell terrible. That night we all tossed and turned gasping for any oxygen the thin air offered. Although we were all exhausted, sleeping at 5,200 meters was really no easy feat.

The next day after awakening and rehydrating after fitful sleep, we set out on a walk with Tara around the Everest base camp area. After walking a fair distance, we came across a small hut tucked into a rocky hillside, which turned out to be a monastery. A smiling monk whose wrinkled face seemed as carved as the rocky hill he lived on greeted us, and beckoned us inside for tea. After talking with the monk for a while, Tara told us that he could bless our prayer flags. As we wrote the names of family and friends on our prayer flags and handed it to the monk to be blessed, I noticed a young Tibetan man sleeping on the bench directly behind where I had been sitting. He slowly awoke, then realizing there were guests rose up and sleepily greeted us. It was the monk's son, who was going to scale Everest the day after we left. He offered to take our prayer flags to the top, and we gratefully accepted. Like that, our prayer flags were carried up to the world's highest point. Leaving the monastery, we thanked the monk and his son over and over again, and wondered in awe at our sheer luck.

After Everest, our next stop was Namtso Lake, a majestic body of water considered holy by Tibetans. We walked along the lake for about half an hour, but it was too windy and cold to endure for too long. Eventually we ended up exploring the cliffs surrounding the lakes, walking in and out of monasteries containing friendly monks who would hand us warm cups of butter tea (which by the way, tasted decent after walking outside in the cold), and show us their meditation chambers. It was amazing to me how much trust the monks had in us foreigners, to let us just wander around their monasteries like that. Part of Tibetan Buddhism is assuming the best of people, and they truly lived that aspect.

 Our last stop in Tibet was back in Lhasa, at the Sera Monastery. The Sera is famous for its debating monks. During the morning, monks will study scripture, and will draw their own conclusions about it. During the afternoon the monks go into the courtyard to debate the scripture under the supervision of old teachers roaming about the area. One monk will be standing, and another monk or a group will be seated. The standing monk will ask the others a question. The seated will then answer. If the standing monk sees their answer as satisfactory, then he asks another question. However, if the seated answer incorrectly, the standing monk will raise his foot and hand (carrying rosary), and will backhand smack his other hand while shouting "TSA!". He will then explain to the seated monk(s) what he believes the right answer is. After a while, they switch places and the other side presents their rebuttal. They do this for hours on end, and it's amazingly entertaining to watch.

That pretty much sums up the trip to Tibet! The ride back to Shanghai was pretty uneventful...I read a mystery book for nearly the entire way home, and the people we shared our compartment were friendly and refrained from snoring Noah to insanity. Pretty soon I leave Shanghai, which feels really strange. Hopefully I'll have some time to post more about that soon. Until then, enjoy these photos and 再见！

Yak Butter Tea. The other students couldn't stand the salty, buttery flavor, but I actually thought it tasted nice. 

LOOK, IT'S EVEREST!!!

Not a cloud in the sky

Beware of the death yak...

Tibetans at Namtso

Can't get enough of the prayer flags

The Lone Monk

The outside of a Namtso monastery

Young monks

Katherine, Josh, and an apparently sleepy Noah in the corner

The mountains surrounding Lhasa

Outside of Jokhang Palace

Debating monks at Sera Monastery...TSA!!!

This is how debating Sera monks ask questions

Listening to a response before TSA-ing some more.

Introducing elements like these would make the U.S. presidential debates SO much more interesting.

Tibet

Hey Everyone,

So the past month has been absolutely crazy. I had about a week and a half trip to Tibet, and by the time I returned from that I realized that I had less than a month left here. So recently, aside from attending class and teaching, I've been going around Shanghai picking up gifts for friends/family, checking out the Expo, and arranging dinners with friends who I probably won't see for at least a couple of years. Add all that up, and the time for blogging I've had has been occupied by chilling with the host family and sleeping. Anyways, recently me, Marius, Noah, Josh, and Katherine returned from an incredible trip to Tibet, and have many, many stories.

While Katherine and Josh chose to fly to Tibet via Chengdu, Noah, Marius and I decided to go Chinese (cheap) on this one and take the 49 hour train from Shanghai to Lhasa. Noah wasn't completely on board at first, but Marius and I convinced him that the plane price was high enough and the train comfortable enough that 49 hours wouldn't be unbearable. Before leaving we went to a nearby Carrefour and stocked up on everything we thought we would need for the train. Those bare necessities ranged from fruit and peanuts to ramen noodles and oreos. We boarded the train at night, climbed into three of the 6 beds available in our cramped compartment, and slept relatively well. I say relatively because at about 4am we were awakened by the loudest snoring I've ever heard from one of our roommates, and there was really not much further sleeping after that. Noah, who is generally a great guy but is angered by discomfort, was pretty irritated by it. Actually, irritated is an understatement: He literally smacked the snoring man a few times to wake him up. Oh well, sometimes that's how it is on trains. On the second night we really started to feel the altitude, but we had water and medication to deal with it. Even with the meds, I still found myself short of breath whenever I climbed to the upper bunk. By the next night we had arrived in Lhasa. Regardless of how much effort merely walking with luggage took, we were out of food and patience, and more than happy to get off the train. After passing several armed soldiers, we found Tara, our English speaking Tibetan tour guide, who welcomed us to Tibet with silver scarves (hadas), symbolizing friendship. Once we arrived at the hotel we ate a quick dinner of yak meat and noodles outside, then went back to the hotel and crashed.

The next morning we met up with Katherine, Josh, and Tara at 9 to visit the Potala Palace. Before the Chinese invaded, the Potala Palace was the Dalai Lama's winter home, and I have to say that if I were a living god I'd probably choose to live there as well. Built on the side of Marpo Ri (Red Mountain), its massive sloping walls and over 1,000 rooms leave an incredible impression of immense power, yet majestic beauty. Once we had huffed and puffed our way to the top, we walked inside and viewed tens of thousands of statues of Tibetan Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Lamas, and Protectors. 

I read up on some Tibetan Buddhism on the train, so I knew at least the basics of the religion, and actually understood a few of the paintings/statues. For those of you who don't have 49 hours to read Lonely Planet's basic summary of Tibetan Buddhism, let me give you a rundown. We are all reincarnated based on karma--actions we perform over the span of many lives. If you have bad karma, you will be reincarnated as an animal, or possibly in hell, whereas if you have good karma you will be a human, demigod, or eventually escape the cycle and become a Buddha. 

The palace also houses all the graves of past Dalai Lamas. According to Tara, once a year the monks take out the bodies, cut their hair and trim their nails (they still grow??), and insert more Tibetan medicine/preservatives into them. She said that Tibetan medicine is very strong, and if they're still giving the lamas haircuts then I guess I believe it. After we finished seeing the Potala, we moved on to the Jokhang Palace, an important Tibetan Buddhist temple. Although we weren't allowed to take many pictures there, we found worshippers circumambulating the temple. They would literally take one step, prostrate themselves flat on the ground, and repeat that motion for hours on end until they had circled the temple completely. I thought abdominal workouts at running practice were difficult, but I can't possibly imagine doing that sort of motion for hours on end.

After we finished viewing the Jokhang, we grabbed some noodles for lunch, then headed to the Lhasa bazaar to do some shopping. While there, we all bought some Tibetan prayer flags--colorful flags with prayers written on them that Tibetans hang in windy places. It is believed that when the wind hits the flags, it carries the prayers up to heaven, and whoever's name is written on the flag will be blessed. Many buildings and mountain summits in Tibet are covered in prayer flags. In addition to buying prayer flags, I also needed to buy a hat to shield myself from the brutal Tibetan sun. Without having walked very far, I noticed a cowboy hat with the Chicago Bulls symbol on it, and Tibetan lettering on the side. Although the hat looked ridiculously touristy, the opportunity was just too good to pass up. That's just one thing I'd never find at a Bulls game or sports store in the U.S., so I bought it and proudly wore it throughout the rest of my time in Tibet.

There's way more that happened on this trip, and tons of pictures that I'm going to post over the next day. Right now I have to go to my host brother's clarinet concert, but I promise more is coming soon. Expect a new post on the second half of the trip and comments on Tibetan-Chinese history/relations over the next couple days. Until then, enjoy!

Potala Palace

Catch the security official with the NYPD hat? New York, Lhasa, same difference really right?

Stairs at altitude. Every step felt like 3.

Oh...well I guess that's nice to put there, right outside of one of the holiest places in the world. Interesting architecture, perhaps a bit symbolic? Thanks Communist Party, really that's just fantastic.

The Dalai Lama's spiritual guards. Don't mess.

Entrance to Dalai Lama's throne room. No pics inside though.

Hall of 10,000 candles. They're lit 24/7 year round, and serve as a prayer to heaven.

People circumambulating the Jokhang Palace

Jokhang

Mandala on ceiling of Jokhang

So this is apparently where Tibetan Buddhists learn srtange magic? I really never grow sick of Chinglish.

Dalai Lama glasses!

Prayer flags draped over a rock. They're really everywhere.

Everywhere

We saw countless gorgeous mountain lakes on the drive to Everest

YAK!

Noah and I doing our standard Jews of the Orient pose. You can't see it, but we're forming the Star of David. That's right, we did it. No regrets.

I could spend a lifetime taking in Tibet's sky and mountains, and it wouldn't be enough.

Big piles of yak doo-doo. Tibetans burn it inside houses and tents for heating purposes.

Paanchen Monastery, which we stayed near for a night on the way to Everest. The Paanchen Lama (the Lama directly below the Dalai Lama) used to live and worship here.

Monks from the Gilukpa (yellow hat) sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Here they're in the middle of chanting.

A particularly neat pattern here

Cobalt blue...I'm still gaping at it

That's all for now. Much more coming tomorrow.

Stories from Host Dad

When discussing and contemplating modern China, one specific theme is always at the top of everyone's mind: Change. China is a country that has probably seen the greatest change recorded in human history over the last 40 years. From the devastation of Mao's regime arose economic reforms and an opening to the West that led the way to China's tremendous rise. It is easy to look at Shanghai's fancy hotels, extensive subway system, constant construction, and shiny World Expo and forget that most of this country's people were poverty stricken not so long ago. 

Yao Baba, my Host Dad, can remember the other China, and often compares the past Shanghai to the endless apartment buildings and skyscrapers of today. He was raised on farmland outside of Shanghai with his two brothers in a 9 square meter house. That's 5 people for 9 square meters. Talk about cramped. In the summertime, the entire neighborhood would bring their mats outside to sleep because inside was too hot. With everyone outside, neighbors were basically like family, and would eat, tell stories, and sing songs together every night. If a stranger walked by during dinnertime, it was expected that you treat the person to eat. If you were a stranger walking by another's field and were hungry, it was completely acceptable to take some of their crops without their permission, because you would naturally extend the same courtesy to them if they were hungry. Living like this was common, and Yao Baba says that even today if you go out into the country the same rules apply. If you did that in the United States, you'd probably have an angry farmer on your hands, but that's the way life is in China's farmland.

Yao Baba also told me about how vastly different education is today. Today China's children rigorously study Math, Chinese, English, and Science. Although there are huge differences between the teaching methods of American and Chinese schools, there is no doubt that Chinese children today are very well educated. However, Yao Baba said that if anyone had told him the world was round 30 years ago, he would have laughed. Another thing that's very different about China's children today is how restricted most are from going out and seeing friends. Most spend their time inside studying and preparing for the all important entrance exams for college, high school, and even junior high. They are pushed so hard it really restricts their opportunities to socialize outside of the classroom. Once again, Yao Baba's school was entirely different. The teacher taught for a few hours each day in a small classroom, then afterwards kids would crowd together and do their homework. The teacher would occasionally walk by to make sure that the kids were working, but if he noticed that a few kids were absent, he would immediately set off to find them. Parents would also often invite the teacher over for dinner. Such a connection between teachers, students, and families is unheard of in today's Shanghai.

There are so many more stories, and I wish I could write them all down, but that would take weeks. Yao Baba is full of stories, and often spends hours telling me of the past, ancient or recent, and describing the degree of change this country has experienced. It's truly eye-opening to hear these stories, and to imagine such a vastly different world than the one I grew up in, the one I'm living in.

Mount Wudang

Hey Everyone,

A couple of weeks ago the CIEE staff took us on a three day trip to Mount Wudang, a sacred Daoist mountain full of temples and Wudang style kungfu! We learned all about Daoism, the history of the mountain, and developing our "qi". Needless to say, it was a fascinating trip, and there are plenty of terrific pictures on display at the bottom of the post!

To travel to Wudang, we took a 24 hour overnight train, which was surprisingly painless. Noah, Marius, Josh and I spent most of the time we were awake chatting to a Chinese woman on the bottom bunk of our 6 bed compartment. She had been living in Harbin (Northeast China) for 2 years and had not seen her 5 year old daughter since leaving. Upon hearing that her hometown was at the base of Mt. Emei, which Noah, Marius and I had traveled to before, we showed her our pictures from our previous trip and talked about Sichuan, traveling in general, cultural differences, and pretty much anything that came to our minds. One reason I especially love traveling by train in China is that it's a really easy, interesting way to meet all sorts of people, not to mention practice Chinese. Aside from bonking my head on the ceiling every time I try to get up, it's really not that bad. I hope I can maintain that view on the 48 hour train ride coming up on the way to Tibet...

Anyways, we arrived at Mt. Wudang the next day and took a bus up part of the mountain to a hotel, where we ate and slept that night. The next morning we awoke bright and early to begin climbing the countless stairs leading up to the golden peak of the mountain. On our way up, we passed many, many Daoist temples, and Li Laoshi explained Daoism to us. The primary focus of Daoism is that we make things way too complicated for ourselves, and should stop trying to hard to civilize and perfect ourselves through rules (such as the ones promoted by Confucius). Rules just confuse us and lead us further away from our natural state. To keep a clear mind through meditation and keeping fit is the best, purest way to live. We must accept things for what they are, and not try to impose interpretations on them. 

Taken in its purest form, Daosim is too simplistic for today’s world, but I believe that small suggestions taken from it can indeed improve day-to-day life. For instance, taking time in one’s life to sit still and do nothing can actually be healthy. Take meditation for instance: the act of literally sitting still and peacefully emptying one’s mind of everything. Science has shown that meditation actually increases one’s alertness, does wonders to relieve the “worldly” stress which Daoism rails against, and even has health benefits such as lower blood pressure. Taking time to empty one’s mind also allows time for reflection, which ironically encourages the type of self-correction that Confucianism preaches. It was really interesting to learn about Daoism and try to relate it to every day life like this.

After many hours of climbing, we reached the "Golden Summit". Apparently, many major Chinese mountains have "Golden Summits," because I remember reaching a Golden Summit on Emei as well. Anyways, at this Golden Summit people had attached locks to the railing at the top and hung lucky red strips of cloth with their sons' and daughters' names on trees to bring their family good fortune. Josh, Katherine and I took a "VICTORYYY" picture, then we all went down to learn about Wudang kungfu from the master of the mountain.

The Wudang kungfu master stood was about a head shorter than me, dressed simply and spoke quietly, but the strength and skill he had were unbelievable. He told us that by mastering our inner "qi", or life force, we could overcome opponents far stronger than ourselves. To prove his point, he asked us to push him over. Noah, the strongest of any of us, went first. Noah clearly had more muscle mass than the master, and was much larger than he was as well. A football player and wrestler, Noah is a guy who knows about force and balance, and how to combine the two effectively. However, whenever Noah attempted to push the master, he would either sidestep him, or grab his hands and push him over instead. All of us were just as unsuccessful, oftentimes getting flipped over onto our backs. The master said that due to his tai qi training, he could successfully speed up slower movements and turn them into quick, powerful actions. 

The master also tried to teach us a few moves. Some of the other guys got it, and I wish I could say I did, but I'm definitely the worst person at learning body movement that I know...oh man, painful memories of high school Vshow practice coming back to me...NO, REPRESS! Ok, all better now. Anyways, something I did do somewhat well was meditate, which he also gave us an introduction to. The purpose of meditation is to clear the mind of anything. The master said that if you could count 20 slow breaths without thinking of any distractions, then you were an accomplished meditator. I got to 7, which was pretty neat. When the master told us to finish, I felt really relaxed yet very alert. Meditation is something I'd like to do more often; it's just a matter of putting aside the time to do so. I've tried it once since, but Shanghai has a bunch of car horns that are really distracting, which makes it difficult. Perhaps I'll find a quiet place on the ECNU campus and try again sometime.

After our kungfu/taiqi/meditation lesson, we headed back down the mountain and slept at the hotel. The next day we took a train back to Shanghai, ending our fascinating trip to Mount Wudang.

The Art of Paper Cutting

大家好!－Hey Everyone!

Spring has finally arrived in Shanghai! After a long, terrible winter of inescapable cold (due to the lack of indoor heating), it is finally warm enough to go outside in a light sweater. Of course it's still cloudy and rains a ton, but I'll take what the weather gods offer. Graciously accepting the newfound warmth, the other guys and I started playing soccer at a field about a 5 minute walk from our apartment complex, and made some Chinese friends who we meet with every weekend. Granted most of their soccer playing skills are above ours, but it's always fun getting out and kicking the ball with them. I've also heard tell of a Shanghai Ultimate Frisbee club that meets weekly. I have yet to explore that, but it's definitely on my to-do list.

Aside from rediscovering life without my winter jacket, there have been a lot of CIEE group activities recently. One of those, and my favorite thus far, was paper cutting. Mr. Zhang, one of my host mother's college professors, is a well known paper cutting artist. His father was famous throughout Shanghai for his paper cutting mastery. After his death, his son took up his art, and has since become quite talented himself, cutting literally anything imaginable out of paper. He told us that all of his designs come from the heart--nothing is memorized. To prove it, he cut an alligator for Noah, which he had never done before.

In addition to cutting out an alligator, he cut out all of the 12 Chinese calendar animals, and gave us samples of natural scenes he had cut out in advance. He tried to teach us how to cut things out, but our gathering mostly consisted of him making art from a magazine page, and us staring open mouthed at his spectacular creations and technique.

Sheep- My Chinese animal

Katherine and her horse. Watch a video of Mr. Zhang cutting it out below! Also, my apologies for not being able to upload the video of me singing in Chinese. I let it go for 48 hours, and it still gave no sign of finishing. The video was taken with my host mother's camera, so it's different video software than usually used for the blog. I also tried Facebook, which didn't work either. In any case, I have it on my computer, so maybe once I'm back in the States and internet is faster I'll try again. Sorry, I'll keep trying to make it work! Until then enjoy the video below :D

Chinese Wedding!

Hey all,

A few weeks ago I received the honor of being invited to a Chinese wedding. My hostmom asked the bride if I could attend, and she agreed on one condition: that I would be the laowai entertainment system. I would have to sing a song in Chinese for over 200 people. Although I wasn't exactly thrilled about singing in Chinese in front of a bunch of gawking wedding guests, none of whom I would know, I figured that this would be my one chance to attend a Chinese wedding while I was here, and quickly accepted the bride's terms. What followed were some of the most interesting experiences I've had thus far.

First of all, Chinese weddings in Shanghai usually aren't in churches, because most of the population isn't religious. Since we were in Shanghai, it was held in a hotel's ballroom, where several large round tables were set up to seat the guests. In the back/center of the ballroom was the stage on which the host conducted the ceremony. Since a wedding isn't a religious celebration here, a host with a booming announcer voice is used instead of a priest. Add in the flashing lights, and it's kind of like the start of a Bulls game but in Chinese, and infinitely more amusing as a foreigner.

You get the idea. After that fantastic opening, there was the usual walking of the bride down the aisle and a flower girl, although no ring bearers. The Chinese don't usually wear wedding rings, although at some weddings today they've began using them to imitate Western weddings. The bride and groom still pledged to each other and kissed, and there was still much rejoicing. Afterwards, the parents joined the bride and groom onstage, placed their hands in paint, and made a shirt with 6 handprints (one from each person) on it in red, yellow, and blue. It was very nice and cheesy, which is exactly how Chinese like it. Following the handprint painting session, we feasted on endless amounts of Chinese food while enjoying intermittent performances and slideshows.

Alright, so I don't have a video of me singing at this moment. Currently my hostdad has one recorded, but he's sleeping so I'll wake him up later and try to post it here. I sang "Laoshu Ai Dami" or "Mouse Loves Rice" in Chinese, and the audience basically went nuts when they realized the foreigner could sing in Chinese. Even though I ended up forgetting a few words, they all started clapping along and cheering, and it was a really great time. Afterwards I was given a traditional Chinese stamp with "金杰明," my Chinese name on it, and "Jacobs" under that. In the future I plan on using it to stamp any important piece of paper that needs my signature. I'll work on getting the video uploaded. Until then Happy Passover/Easter and have a good week!

Expo Construction Site

Hey Everyone,

A while back I went to the Shanghai World Expo construction site. My host parents work in cement and construction, meaning they have the connections to give me a sneak preview of the World Expo! It was of course very exciting to see all of the buildings going up, considering how much the government is talking up the event. 70 million visitors are expected over 5 months, and the government is spending more in preparation for the event than the Beijing Olympics. With less than 1 month to go, the city is still a huge construction site and I have no idea how they're going to pull it off. Apparently all is going according to schedule, so I guess we'll see how the rest of construction plays out. Below are some pictures I took at the pavilions, some of which are absolutely incredible. I can't wait until they're all finished, so I can go spend days looking at all the amazing architecture and wandering around the massive area Expo covers.

Chinese Pavilion. Painted in China Red and taking the shape of an ancient scholar's cap, it is the largest, Chinesiest pavilion.

Close-up Chinese Pavilion

The Expo's Center Axis

Me, Yao, and his cousins in front of Chinese Pavilion

Surprise camera attack!

Strange looking Japanese Pavilion. Kind of like a video game blob character made into a building?

Yao rocking the shades

Expo Performance Center

Expo Center Axis up-close

Holland Pavilion, aka "Happy Town". I'd say it's the pavilion with the coolest design. I could definitely see a bunch of Dutch people living very happily there. Who wouldn't be in that house?

British Pavilion, aka The Porcupine. In each one of those spines is a seed from the World Seed Bank, showing Britain's commitment to a greener future. Pretty neat!

African Pavilion. Given that many African countries are still struggling to fund and build their own infrastructure, the Chinese government provided most of the funding for this one.

Romanian Pavilion

Russian Pavilion

Another view of "Happy Town"

Chinese New Year

Happy Year of the Tiger!

A couple of weeks ago, the Chinese New Year officially ended (as it started) with a bang. Although us Americans may think we're awesome setting off fireworks for 4th of July, that is absolutely nothing compared to how the Chinese celebrate New Years. For about two weeks, every night fireworks exploded in the sky, occasionally even hitting my apartment window. Needless to say there was little sleep involved with Chinese New Year.

Aside from setting off countless fireworks, my host family also showed me their traditions on Chinese New Years. On New Years Eve, we carried food, drinks, and explosives to my hostdad's mother's house, and prepared for a nice meal with the rest of my host uncles and their families. However, before eating, we started folding little silver slips of paper into pyramid shaped designs. I asked my hostmom why we were doing this, and she said it was money to burn and send to yeye (host grandpa who passed away a couple of years ago) in heaven. If yeye has money, he can live well in heaven and purchase blessings to guide and protect the rest of us on Earth. After we had folded a bag full of these paper slips, host grandma pulled out a small fire pit, and we started burning them along with incense, filling the room with smoke. We opened up a window, which did a bit to help. Each family member, coughing, kneeled and bowed before the fire pit to show their gratitude to yeye.

After the a big meal of rice, fish, pork, and veggies, we all sat down to watch the annual New Years show, a live tv show which takes place in Beijing that nearly every family in China watches. It's kind of like watching the ball drop, but with a Chinese magnitude. It featured performances by famous Chinese singers, skits by comedians, dances representing every nationality, and a really amazing magician who appeared to stick his hand through glass. People were talking about him in particular for days afterwards. It also featured a really weird number with little kids running around with Chinese cartoon characters. 

No, I couldn't tell you why

After the 4 hour show finished, we went outside to light fireworks, which was lots of fun. We watched our fireworks and others light the sky to welcome the New Year, and plugged our ears as screamers roared through the air. Afterwards my family and I returned home, watched more TV, and talked about the past year and the upcoming one. My hostmom recently bought a "Fengshui" book, which basically advises you what to do in order to have luck for the upcoming year, and forecasts the lives of celebrities and even countries. For instance, everyone should have a hard boiled egg each morning, males of my Chinese animal (Ram since I was born in '91) are supposed to take a big risk this year which will surely pay off, Yao Ming's quality of play will probably decrease, and the American economy will recover. Fengshui tells all.

Below is a video of fireworks taken from my apartment window. Enjoy!

Shangri-la and Back to Shanghai!

After a long bus ride from Tiger Leaping Gorge to Shangri-la, we finally arrived at the bus station and quickly made our way to our hostel. Shangri-la has actually only recently been referred to as Shangri-la. Before 2001 it was known as Zhongdian, but in order to attract tourists the name was changed to that of a mystical paradise. On the way back from Shangri-la to Lijiang I was shocked to meet a Californian woman who actually thought that Chinese Shangrila and the mystical place were one and the same, so I guess the Chinese government's tourism strategy worked.

The altitude at Shangri-la is about 10,827 feet, so we were all exhausted by the time we got to the hostel. We rested there for a couple of hours, and I let the 6 and 7 year old children of the hostel owner play with my camera. I also helped them read some characters. It turned out I knew more than they did, which I was perhaps unreasonably proud of myself for.

Son of the hostel owner wearing Marius' sunglasses

After a while we went out to get dinner, then returned back to the hostel because Michael didn't feel well. He said he was worried because he had heart problems, so he went to bed early. Noah, Marius and I visited a local temple at night where we saw a huge golden Tibetan prayer wheel. Monks harness themselves to the wheel, and walk around slowly spinning it. The reason is something to do with the circle of life, but I'm not exactly sure how Tibetan Buddhism works.

Once we returned to the hostel we immediately got ready for bed. Michael requested some hot water, saying he felt worse, so I poured some into his canteen, walked back to my bed, and crashed. I had been sick the day before, so I was completely spent. Despite being at altitude I would sleep quite well, until 5 the next morning when Michael woke me up and asked me to take him to the hospital. He was breathing heavily, and really not looking good, so I jumped out of bed and helped him outside. Thankfully we found a taxi to the hospital, which wasn't far away, but he was leaning heavily on me to walk. We finally arrived there, only to find that the lobby was completely empty. Not a single doctor was in sight. We finally found a locked room with a doctor sleeping inside, knocked on his door, waited for him to wake up, THEN got Michael checked out. The doctor handed us a slip of paper, then told us to go across the hospital to another area. We got there, and a woman behind a closed window asked Michael for money, filled out a form, then directed us to another window, where there was another woman. By the time we had gotten through all the bureaucracy, Michael had been standing, waiting for half an hour. What if he were seriously hurt? Would there have been more doctors to help other than that one who we awoke from his slumber behind a locked door? I found this experience at the Shangri-la hospital shocking. It was nothing compared to the quick, decisive action I've seen taken at hospitals in the U.S..

Michael was finally diagnosed with altitude sickness, hooked up to an oxygen tank, and told to rest for 2 hours then get on the next bus down to Lijiang. After 2 hours I helped Michael prepare his bags, and we told him we'd meet him back in Lijiang later that day since our flight to Shanghai 2 days later left from Lijiang anyways. 

After seeing Michael off, Noah, Marius and I got breakfast then made our way to Shangri-la's famous Songzanlin Temple, the largest Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Yunnan province. I got a few pictures of the outside, which was under reconstruction, but inside pictures were strictly prohibited. There were also rules we had to follow, like removing our hats, walking in clockwise direction around the temple, never looking directly at a lama picture or statue, and not "crossing" monks. I didn't really know how to follow the last rule, but I just tried to avoid crossing their path or angering them in any way. Inside the temple there were tons of pictures depicting the Tibetan Buddhist circle of life, paintings/pictures of lamas both ancient and in their currently living, reincarnated form, and so much more I did not understand. I need to study Tibetan Buddhism more before I leave here, because it looks absolutely fascinating, and the temples are stunning.

After visiting this incredible temple, we caught a bus back to Lijiang and met Michael at the hostel. We promptly went to sleep, and the next day woke up to catch the Saints beat the Colts in the Superbowl! Woohoo! The only problem with watching the Superbowl in China is that the announcers every five minutes feel the need to explain the rules of football to the Chinese audience, who only watch football once a year, if even that. A bunch of plays were skipped, and the halftime show wasn't played, but all in all I was very happy that I got to see the game. After the Superbowl we spent the rest of the day relaxing at the hostel, our journey finally at its end. Michael felt sick and had to go to the hospital again, which was a major bummer for our final day on the trip, but the next day we visited him and he seemed to be doing much better. I also received an e-mail from him yesterday and he says he's back to normal. After visiting Michael in the hospital, we boarded our flight back to Shanghai and flew home. Traveling through Sichuan and Yunnan was truly an adventure in every sense of the word, and the experiences we had were absolutely incredible. I think Marius sums it up best in this video.

I'm going to go outside and light some fireworks for Chinese New Year, which I will detail in the next post. Until then enjoy all the recent postings and Happy Year of the Tiger!

Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge

We took the minibus to Lijiang for about 1.5 hours, checked in at our new hostel, then spent the rest of the day walking around Lijiang Old Town. Honestly, the Lijiang Old Town was pretty underwhelming. Like Dali, Lijiang Old Town was mainly a tourist attraction, but without the opportunity to get outside and bike by the lake shore through local Chinese neighborhoods. Unlike Dali, which attracted scores of laowai, Lijiang seemed to have a much greater Chinese tourist population. This made sense, because the attractions of the Old Town felt much more aimed at Chinese visitors.

For instance, you could pay to take pictures with men and women dressed in native clothing, or you could go to a club and watch pretty girls in native dresses suggestively dance. All this appeals to the Han Chinese because the government portrays Chinese minorities as simple and more sexually open. The government embraces diversity, proudly boasting China's 56 different "nationalities," but simultaneously paints most minorities as backwards, stuck in their traditions. While the government claims to be bringing the country together by celebrating such diversity by encouraging exotic native dance performances and nude portraits of the minorities, it actually seems to drive more of a wedge between the Han Chinese and the minorities. It seems to promote a superiority complex among 95% of the population who "ooh" and "aah" at the often sexual dances, songs, and art (mostly created by Han Chinese) portraying minorities, but condescendingly proclaim that the Han Chinese have progressed past such silly things. How the government plans to reconcile the growing differences in thought between the minorities and the Han majority remains to be seen.

Still, Lijiang was very beautiful.

I refused to pay for a picture with HUGE opium pipe man, so instead I just photographed this Chinese woman who did pay.

Construction in Lijiang Old Town

I like it

After spending the night in Lijiang, we got up the next morning to hike Tiger Leaping Gorge. Apparently thousands of years ago a tiger was being hunted and was running away, and jumped across the gorge, explaining the name. However, upon first glance it was clear that we were not going to attempt to replicate the tiger's feat.

DUN-DUN-DUHH

Intimidating much? However, not to worry! We were on the other side of the gorge, which looked more like this.

Ahh that's nice.

The first part of the climb, the infamous 28 bends, was the most strenuous part of the day. We hiked along a very steep uphill path that supposedly curved 28 times, but it felt like much more. However, compared to Emeishan this dry path in spring climate was a walk in the park, so Noah, Marius and I were fine. Michael is a smoker, so we had to stop a few times for him, but the 28 bends only took us an hour total. After the 28 bends the path was almost entirely downhill, so we spent the rest of the day strolling across the gorge and joining Michael in singing songs. It was all merry hiking until my stomach for some reason decided to reject my lunch and send it back up. I felt much better after throwing up though, so I chugged back some water and went along as before. However, 20 minutes later I felt sick again, and after another 20 we had arrived at our hostel, where I threw up everywhere in and out of sight. At that point I figured that it was contaminated bottled water from a stop along the gorge that caused my sickness, so after a few cups of heated water from the hostel I felt much better, although I had to use the bathroom every 30 minutes for the next few hours. Some very kind Chinese backpackers gave me some pills to help settle my stomach, and I finally fell asleep.

Our group had decided to give me an extra day in Tiger Leaping Gorge to recover, but I felt alright enough to travel to Shangri-la, our next destination the following day. I still wasn't 100%, but it wasn't bad enough to hold up the trip. However, I was wholly unprepared for the dangers of the Low Road, the way back to the entry village of Tiger Leaping Gorge. We had hiked the High Road, which has no space for cars but is relatively safe. The Low Road is under construction, and although the road was for the most part wide enough, we were in danger of being knocked off the road by falling rocks along the entire way. On our right side was the mountain, and on our left was a long, long drop to the turbulent river below. As the drive back began, all seemed to be going well. However, we soon came across a sandy shelf where rocks the size of my head were tumbling down the slope at absolutely terrifying speeds. The driver had no fear whatsoever; he was ready to drive us through the rockslide and over the narrow, slanted downward road ahead. Despite our driver's confidence, we convinced him to let us out the vehicle and wait for the rockslide to slow down a bit. Once there weren't as many rocks falling, the driver drove across and we ran for our lives after him. After making it across, we paused to take a "WE SURVIVED!" picture, but realizing that there were still falling rocks decided the best way to survive was to leave as soon as possible. We finally made it to the entry village safely (PHEW!), thanked the driver, and boarded a bus to Shangri-la.