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Tour of Dongbei (North East China)

// July 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // China, Dalian, Harbin, Travel

I just got back from a week of touring through some of the most famous parts of North Eastern China (the region known as “dongbei” or “东北”) so I thought I’d write down all I did in the past 7 days. Here it goes:

Friday, July 3, 2009
Friday night we all got on a night train to Dalian. Being the third time the whole group has traveled by train, I think we’re starting to get the hang of it. Things went smoothly and we had another night of singing songs and playing cards into the night at 140 km/hr.

Saturday, July 4, 2009
Saturday morning we arrived in Dalian. After breakfast at a Chinese fast food joint, we got on a bus to Jinshetan, which is about an hour northeast of Dalian.  So I was pretty bummed when I found out that we weren’t actually staying in Dalian, my old home town from last year. In Jinshetan, we went swimming at the beach, then in the afternoon everyone went to an amusement park. I still don’t really understand the decision to spend our time this way – both the beach and amusement park you can do in the States, and I felt it would have been a much better decision to actually stay in Dalian and see the city. Regardless, we had a good time at the beach, and then I took a train with a classmate back to Dalian to see my friends from the previous summer. We only got to hang out for a few hours, but it was great to see them again. That night we headed back to Jinshetan and celebrated the 4th of July with everyone. We had a huge fire and cooked hotdogs and smores on sticks. In the distance we saw a bunch of other fireworks going off, and it was comforting to know other Americans were in the town.

Sunday, July 5, 2009
We didn’t do a whole lot on Sunday. In the morning we took a bus out to a shipping port where we waited for about an hour to board our boat to Yantai. We spent the rest of the day riding the boat. It was a smooth ride and we got the VIP room with card tables, so it was a pretty sweet deal. In the afternoon I spent about 2 hours talking with some of our teachers in Chinese and had some wonderful conversations, taking notes all along the way.

Monday, July 6, 2009
We traveled to the Penglai Fortress the next morning where we learned about the Penglai mirage and about the Legends of the 8 Immortals. We took a motor boat ride in the afternoon and hiked the side of a small mountain to a temple. The weather was particularly hot that afternoon and a lot of people ended the day with red necks, myself included, but the view from the top was worth it.  That night we boarded another night train to Yanzhou.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Tuesday morning we woke up in Yanzhou then took a bus to Qufu and spent the morning touring Confucius’s home. In the afternoon we went to Mencius’s home, one of Confucius’s most famous students. I took a lot of photos of the two areas, both which were rather large sort of parks filled with trees and ancient Chinese buildings. I wish I knew more about the history of the places because after a while everything started to look the same, and I could not distinguish the significance of one temple over the other. That night we had a delicious dinner, complete with scorpions as a local delight.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The next morning we took a bus to the Ling Yan Buddhist Temple near Mount Tai. It is said that if you go to Mount Tai but you don’t go to the Ling Yan Temple, then you haven’t actually gone to Mount Tai. I wrote my name in English and Chinese in a book in one of the temples which is said to bring good fortune. The temple was gorgeous, but the weather didn’t necessarily agree. Just before lunch, the rain started to pour, and it didn’t let up for most of the day. That afternoon, we all put on ponchos and began the hike up the 1500 meter tall Mount Tai. We took a bus half way up then walked for about an hour literally inside a rain cloud up seemingly never-ending stairs. At the top, some people got lost because you couldn’t see more than 10 ft in front of yourself. We were supposed to get up the next morning around 4:00 to see the sunrise, but the fog was just too bad.

Thursday, July 9, 2009
The next morning we broke up into two groups. One hiked all the way back down the mountain. The other group, the one I went with, stayed at the top for the morning, and it turned out to be a good decision. Around 10:00 am, the fog dissipated and we found ourselves looking down at clouds and up at beautiful blue skies. The photos don’t even come close to capturing the awe of that morning. It turned out the bad weather the day before was a blessing because the cable car was not working and no Chinese tourists were able to come up. We ended up with the entire top of the mountain to ourselves. That afternoon, the cable cars began working again and we rode them down to the buses. After Mount Tai, we went to Larry’s home village (Larry was one of our guides). The small town had set up a huge celebration for us, and we were placed at tables in the center of about 400 Chinese villagers in front of a stage. For the rest of the day, we watched the local townspeople perform on stage, and we even got a chance to go on stage and sing a few songs. The warmth from that small town was perhaps the most incredible part of the whole trip.

Friday, July 10, 2009
We spent the night a very nice hotel and spa, then the next morning went to Pu Songling’s Liquan Spring where we saw his gravesite and visited a haunted house. Pu Songling was a famous Chinese writer, sort of like a Chinese Hemmingway. The haunted house was similar to most haunted houses in the States, with very fake looking stuff inside, but this house was a bit more graphic than ones I have been to before (for example, a naked man clenching to a glowing hot steel column as torture for his sins). That afternoon we headed to the airport where we found that our flight was delayed several hours. We finally left around 7:30 pm and arrived back in Harbin around 9:00 pm.

All in all, the week was a great experience and a nice break from classes. There were definitely some flaws in planning, and it seemed like we spent way too much of our time on a bus or a train or waiting, but I think the good outweighed the bad. Going to Mount Tai and Larry’s village alone were two amazing experiences I would probably never have the opportunity to do on my own. I posted a bunch of photos from the trip in 4 separate albums, so check them out it you’d like on my photos page or on my flickr account. Now I’m looking forward to only 4 weeks left here in Harbin. I can’t believe how quickly this program is going by, but it’s been awesome so far.

Trip to Inner Mongolia (内蒙古)

// June 27th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // China, Harbin, Travel

Well, I’ve been so busy that before I had a chance to write about Harbin, we went on a trip to Inner Mongolia. I’ll have to write about Harbin another time. The trip was from June 19 to 21, 2009. We traveled by train and bus and visited many sites during our two days in the region. I guess I’ll just take you through the events one by one.

Friday night we all met in the lobby downstairs then took a bus to the train station. We boarded the train around 9:00 pm, and then Max and I promptly began writing songs in Chinese with the help of Jay’s guitar. Within 5 minutes we had a tune down and performed it, which resulted in a rather continuous flow of singing every song anyone knew until the wee hours of the morning. The train was a blast, although I think we definitely annoyed some people trying to get some sleep.

We arriving early in the morning in a city called 海拉尔 (hailaer) and were immediately welcomed by our tour company, “Flying Tourism Co. Ltd China, Harbin” (飞场旅游) who gave us yellow tourism hats with the company logo on it and a white silk-like scarf. We then went to a buffet style breakfast restaurant that had traditional food from the area. Most memorable for me was the milk tea that sort of had a flavor of butter, milk, and very light coffee. After breakfast, we went to 海拉尔战争纪念园 (Hailaer War Memorial). The building is an old Japanese Base that has been converted into a museum, and inside was some very disturbing facts about what the Japanese did to the Chinese. Oddly enough, there was a shooting range at the end (which some students tried out) and a blue screen where you could stand and look like you were flying over the city (a little out of place for a war memorial if you ask me, but eh, it was fun).

After the war memorial we went to a Mongolian tourist facility that is run by local Mongolians and set up as a traditional Mongolian festival house. There was one main tent and several smaller surrounding ones. When we arrived, we were greeted by the Mongolians and each took a celebratory shot of 白酒 (bai jiu). After the ceremony, we went to the back of the facility where the animals were kept and rode horses (well, not by ourselves, but it was still cool to get to ride one even with a guy in front guiding). Several of us, including me, rode the camel ride for 30 kuai (about $4.20, and totally worth it – definitely the highlight of the day). You don’t realize how high those animals stand until you get on one, and they make the strangest noise I’ve ever heard an animal make (kind of like those things from Star Wars that Luke kills and crawls inside to survive in the cold). During lunch, we ate traditional Mongolian food, which included among other things some incredibly delicious lamb. They bring it to you as just a plate of lamb chunks then you grab a piece and cut off what you want with a knife. During lunch, the Mongolians had a small show where they sung songs and played the “Morin khuur” (sort of a Mongolian cello with a horse head carved in the nut at the top). In Chinese it is known as the matouqin (马头琴). They say that when it is played, the horses outside cry.

After lunch, we got back on the bus to head on to Inner Mongolia. We took a pit stop for a group photo, and after the photo a few people started running towards the hill in the distance (I still don’t know what sparked this). Eventually everyone joined in and we ended up running a least a mile out into the field. From there all you could see for miles was a beautiful rolling prairie. I took a bunch of photos in an attempt to capture the exact photo from the Microsoft desktop screen.

We then rode the bus for about an hour until we came upon a traditional Mongolian home on the side of the road. We all got out and started chatting with the family that lived there. Surprisingly, their Mandarin was incredibly clear and we could understand most of what they said. I went inside one of the 3 tents and found several more students chatting with an older woman. She said she was 60 and had 4 daughters that lived in the city. She was a lovely lady and welcomed us to have some milk tea and crackers that were sort of like a dried cheese. Outside they had a small wind turbine and inside under the TV was a bunch of car batteries and parts of a CPU that converted and stored the electricity. I was pretty impressed to see such a rather advanced set up functioning in such a poor environment.

We rode on for about another hour and a half until we arrived in 内蒙古 (Inner Mongolia) and went to our hotel. Everyone was pretty beat, and I ended up playing cards then going to bed. The next morning we rode out to 呼伦湖 (Hu Lun Lake) which turned out to be a huge dried up area with 4-Wheelers and a Dune Buggy, so we drove them around and got covered in mud for the morning. After the morning fun, we headed to the final destination of our trip – the Russian border. When we first arrived, we were told we would have 15 minutes to walk around and take photos from about 300 yards out, then would have to leave. After about 20 minutes of walking around, we were finally allowed to get closer and actually go inside the Chinese-side main building. Afterwards we went down the rode to a huge courtyard that was filled with human-size Babushkas all around one gigantic Babushka in the middle. The Babushkas were all painted with different people and places (mostly famous Americans). After about 30 minutes of hanging out there, we got back on the buses and headed for the hotel. We grabbed some quick dinner then went to the train station for our long ride back to Harbin. It was about a 12 hour ride through the night, and then we had the morning to sleep and prepare for afternoon classes. It was an event-packed weekend, but one heck of a good time.

Back in Beijing

// June 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // China, Travel

I can’t believe it but I’m back in Beijing.  Just a few hours ago we got off the plane and boarded a bus to the Sleepy Inn Hostel in Beijing.  We’ll be staying here for the next two nights before we head over to Harbin by train.  It’s so surreal!  I feel like I just left China yesterday and here I am back walking around Bohai lake, which I just did last July.  So far the summer is off to a great start!

Camp Jitterbug & China Preparations

// June 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // China, Dancing, Travel

I just got back to Virginia from Seattle on Monday night and I am already sitting in a hotel in D.C. preparing for another summer of Chinese study in China. I have been home literally less than 48 hours and have already had to fly again here, only to leave for China Friday morning – I am in the air every 48 hours!

Anyway, back to Camp Jitterbug. I left for Seattle last Wednesday and flew half the day to arrive at 11:30 pm. As soon as I got off the plane, I called my host, Jared, and grabbed a cab to the dance. We met at the Century Ballroom. When I walked through the doors, I found a room full of dancers surrounded by luggage from all over the world. It seemed that every dancer had done exactly what I had – go straight to the dance. While I only managed to dance the last two songs, they were both wonderful dances, and I could tell this was going to be one amazing week of dancing.

The next morning we spent most of the day touring the city. We went all over the place and saw all the famous sites, like the Space Needle and the very first Starbucks (check out the pics here). The tour of the city underground was perhaps the coolest part – the story of how Seattle got started is pretty ridiculous. That night everyone met at the meet and greet dance, which was at a venue that was hot beyond all reason. I have never gone through more shirts more quickly at a dance. After that, we went home and got ready for electives the next day.

Friday we took several elective classes which I really liked. During the lessons, I noticed that many of the dancers trying out for the masters level were about where my dancing level was, so I made the decision to try out for the masters track the next morning. Later, we went to the Jump Session show, which blew me away. Some of the most intense and creative performances in the jazz dance genre in the world all on one stage! The show was truly one of the top highlights of the whole event. The dance that night was a much better venue and a whole lot cooler, but we ended up not staying too long at the late night since auditions were so early.

Saturday morning we hit the auditions, and after about 7 heats of crazy fast swing outs, I got picked for the masters track. It was pretty incredible and quite surprising. I really didn’t think I’d get in, but after I started some of the classes I realized I could handle it. I held my own throughout the weekend and really enjoyed being challenged with some really hard material. It wasn’t easy, but I think I learned a ton more by challenging myself. The dances and competitions that night and the next were spectacular! Phenomenal bands and great venues, filled with some of my favorite people in the world. Camp Jitterbug as a whole really impressed me. The crowd it drew was unbelievable and every single dance was just great! It makes me sad to realize that it will be a while until I get to see and dance with those people again.

Now I am sitting in the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Washington D.C. Just a few hours ago I met up with all the CLS scholarship winners that are going on the intensive Chinese language trip with me this whole summer. I had dinner with several of the Harbin scholars and it looks like it is going to be a good summer. They seem like a really fun bunch and are all amped about the trip. Tomorrow is our full orientation, and then Friday morning we board the plane. It’ll be another long flight and another adventure in China. I can’t wait to get started!

Hong Kong & The First Ever HKLX!

// November 25th, 2008 // No Comments » // China, Dancing

This past weekend I flew to Hong Kong to participate in the first ever HKLX (Hong Kong Lindy Exchange), a full weekend of swing dancing with dancers from all over Asia and the world. We danced at some of the most famous places in Hong Kong, including the Giant Buddha at the Po Lin Monastery, the Avenue of Stars by Victoria Harbor, and “Jumbo,” the world’s largest floating restaurant. In addition to the hours of awesome dancing, I served as a guest DJ for several sets throughout the weekend, including the last one for the whole event. It was quite an honor.

On HKLX:
As the first ever Hong Kong Lindy Exchange, the event as a whole was top notch. Karen, the organizer, did a remarkable job putting the weekend together, and all the local HK dancers were incredibly gracious and welcoming. My host in particular, Owen, was a great sport and super helpful throughout the whole weekend – thanks again for everything Owen. The dancing was fantastic, and the international crowd made it the most diverse exchange I have ever been to. We had dancers from Vietnam, Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, Xiamen, Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai, East Timor, America, Canada, England, and Australia. Even the local Hong Kong dancers were a mixed bunch, with nearly half originally from other countries. Everyone had such different dance styles based on where they were from, and each dance was like listening to a different accent. The “it’s a small world” moments were all over the place, as half of us knew the same people in the world of lindy hoppers.

Another thing that really set the event apart from other exchanges is how much of Hong Kong we actually got to experience. Other exchanges focus so much on the dancing that you never really get a feel for the city, but this exchange did an excellent job of fusing the two together. The Giant Buddha, Avenue of Stars, Junk Boat ride, and dim sum brunch really highlighted Hong Kong, which made the dancing even better. I honestly don’t think things could have gone any better (well, ­besides that insane line at the cable cars – ­we’ll remember that one for next time).

On Hong Kong:
The first thing I noticed about Hong Kong was everyone driving on the wrong side of the road. Having belonged to England for 100 years, Hong Kong’s entire infrastructure was developed by the British, including all their backwards driving traditions and double-decker buses.

The second thing I noticed was the weather. Coming from Shanghai where it is getting to around 5°C (40°F) at night, Hong Kong seemed like a paradise at around 25°C (78°F) all weekend. It felt like Florida in the springtime.

The third thing I noticed was how crowded and tiny everything was. 20 million people in Shanghai makes the city feel pretty tight, especially during rush hour, but the streets are still fairly large with a little room for squeezing by cars and buses. Hong Kong has no squeeze room. The cars are inches from each other everywhere, and most roads are either one-way alleys or two-lane suicide paths just begging you to play chicken with the oncoming traffic. Accenting the tightness are vertical spires of apartments and towers surrounding every inch of pavement. Given so many buildings, we were nearly always standing in the shade. Housing seemed to grow out of every structure, like Lego blocks of single rooms soaring into the sky. The city really made Shanghai feel much more spacious than I had ever realized.

In general, Hong Kong seemed like a pretty cool place. The food was amazing (mmm…dim sum) and the unique Anglo-Sino mixture of cultures made for a seriously unique city unlike anywhere else I have ever seen. Walking around felt like a European city (or at least what I imagine a European city to feel like since I’ve never been to Europe). The sound of Cantonese and English on every corner kind of throws you off at first, and there does not really seem to be any single language that everyone speaks. English is your best bet, but you never know who will understand. The foreigners greatly outweigh the locals in many places in the city, and the international culture makes Shanghai look like southwestern China countryside in comparison. And despite its British-ness with the left-sided driving, the city’s infrastructure and metro is unbelievable – arguably one of the best in the world. All in all, I had a fantastic time in Hong Kong, and I hope I can visit again in the future.