Winding Down and Going Home....

Over the last week, the lake outside of my apartment has frozen and a light snow has settled on the ground (see photo), signaling the end of my stay in Beijing. We had our closing banquet last night (see photo). I leave China for the US tomorrow morning.

My time in China has gone amazingly fast. I've met so many people, seen so much, and learned so much in the last 3.5 months. Its been a wonderful adventure. I'm excited about going home, back to the US, but I'm going to miss my second home in Beijing. I know I'll be back. I just don't know when... yet.

As I think about going home, I'm reflecting on all of the things that I've come to enjoy about Beijing and China and what I'll miss most. Here's my top 10 list:

1. Friends, colleagues & students that I've gotten to know here.

2. The diversity of Chinese food, particularly the seemingly infinite variety of vegetables (Literally, I have hardly had any dishes twice. Calculated out... 105 days x 3 dishes per day, that's a lot of different dishes!)

3. The slower pace and flexible attitude toward time

4. Speaking Chinese and being understood (it doesn't happen often, but when it does, its so cool!)

5. HouHai (a great little area downtown with bars and restaurants around the edge of a lake)

6. Being able to take weekend trips to exotic places (being able to even consider a long weekend trip to Tibet!)

7. Walking (from home to class, to the office, to dinner, etc.)

8. Large round banquet tables (seating up to 20) and family style eating... its amazing how much this creates a communal bond. A Chinse colleague told me that when she visits the US, she feels lonely at meals because she can't share her food with others and noone wants to share with her.

9. The Chinese peoples' optimism and excitement about the future

10. The lake in front of my apartment

Looking ahead, I'm thinking about all of those things that I'm looking forward to back home. My top 10 include:

1. Spending time with my husband

2. Family, friends, and colleagues

3. Those two dogs

4. The salad bar at our local grocery store (Draeger's)

5. Crossing the street in a crosswalk and having the cars actually stop

6. Toilet paper in public restrooms

7. Standing in a line/cue and having people wait patiently for their turn (or better yet, having a number and politely waiting my turn).

8. Ice cream, especially gelato!

9. Speaking English and being understood

10. Breathing clean air... aaaahhhhh.

Panda Bears

It seemed too much to put it all in one post, so I saved the panda bears for their very own. On our last day in Sichuan, we went to the Panda Research Base in Chengdu. I recently saw a Discovery Channel special describing the work at this research center. Evidently, they now have the highest success rate in breeding giant pandas in captivity. Giant pandas are endangered because their habitat is slowly being encroached upon by humans and pandas need large expanses of land on which to exist because of the amount of bamboo they need to survive. There are only about 1500 panda remaining in the wild. They have 200 additional pandas at this research base, many of whom were born and raised here (experiments to introduce these pandas into the wild haven't met with much success).

We weren't allowed pictures of them, but the highlight of the visit was the nursery. We saw five 2-4 month pandas. They were sooo cute... fluffy, playful little creatures that were just barely learning to navigate around the nursery. They kept tipping over and rolling around on the ground. The guide had to peel me away from the window to go see the older pandas. As you can see from the photo, the older pandas were pretty cute too. The first photo shows a couple of 1 year old pandas (equivalent to about 4 human years) sleeping the afternoon away. The second shows an adult panda sleeping. It turns out that pandas sleep about 8 hours per day and eat another 8 hour per day, so most of those that we saw were doing one or the other. We saw about 20 pandas at the research base. I'm told that we were really lucky that day because often visitors only get to see 2-4.

I apologize for the dark photos. It was about 4pm when we got there (due to the flight delay described in the earlier post) and the sun was starting to go down, so there wasn't much light for photos.

JiuZhaigou -- Land of Lakes, Waterfalls, and Yaks

I found myself with a free weekend before leaving China this week. I toyed with the idea of going to Tibet, but Tibet seems to demand more time than I had available. Instead, a friend of mine from Sichuan offered to show me her home province. We flew into Chengdu and then again to JiuZhaigou which is a stunningly beautiful mountain area (about 3500 meters above sea level). It was cold and the waterfalls were just starting to freeze. The photos show one of the gorgeous blue lakes (tinted with travertine), some of the ice on the trees and ice cycles forming as part of the soon-to-be-frozen waterfall.

I was surprised to learn that this area is largely populated by Tibetians who have lived around here for hundreds of years. There are many Tibetian villages in the area. They're a bit touristy now, but it was fascinating to me that the Tibetians reach so deep into China.

On the way back to the JiuZhaigou airport, we saw a herd of yaks along the road (see photo). We also left a bit early so that we could stop and see the Tibetian Mastiff's. We visited a kennel where they were selling the dogs for up to $12,000. They were gorgeous animals and mostly really friendly (see photo), although the conditions under which they were kept was terrible. I wanted to bring them all home!

Our flight from JiuZhaigou was delayed for two hours, but it was kind of fun anyway because a whole group of us sat in the airport tea house, played cards, and chatted (see photo). It was really fun seeing group after group of people playing cards and laughing. They even had mahjong rooms in the airport tea house where people could play mahjong while waiting (see photo). Sichuan has tons of tea houses and is known for their laid back culture and friendly people. I could get used to that! The food was also, of course, amazing!

Healthy Living Through Massage

At some point, I figured that I just had to write about massages in China. After my colleague, Diane Bailey, sent me the New York Times list of the best spas in China, I figured that the cat was out of the bag. Yes, I like massages... I love massages, and I've had about as many as I can fit in while in China. I've had Thai massages, traditional Chinese massages, head massages, and so many foot massages that I lost count. One day in Guilin, while waiting for my mom and sister's flight from Hongzhou, I had a full 4 hours of massage treatments.

Its been interesting to see the range of massages available in China. One of my favorites (in theory... I haven't had one yet) is the "blindman massage." These massages are actually carried out by blind men -- their sense of touch is said to be more acute. A personal favorite is the omnipresent foot massage. I think that just about every block in every city in China has a place to have a foot massage. No kidding... even the Beijing airport has a foot massage salon which, of course, I had to try. And, its packed... waiting room only. The fascinating thing to me about the foot massages here is that they're a very social activity. There are always at least three chairs in the room and usually a large screen TV in front of the chairs. People chat, watch TV, and have their feet rubbed. The photo shows my mom and sister after their foot massage. (My chair was the one on the right.) Foot massages are considered medicinal. People have foot massages not just because it feels good, but because it helps digestion, and overall health. When sitting down for a foot massage, the client is often asked which package of herbs s/he wants. Each package contains the minerals that will be put in the water to soak the feet (the first step of the massage) and the lotion that will be rubbed into the feet (the second step of the massage). These packages are supposed to be selected based on what ails you. The packages of herbs can cost up to twice the price of the massage itself.

Overall though, the prices of massages in China is really low. In the high-priced hotels, the cost is about 75% of what we generally pay in California, but local spas (which are usually just as good, but aren't "spa like"... e.g. with soothing music, waterfalls, etc.) are about 20-30% of what I pay at home. A one-hour foot massage costs about 80 RMB (about $11) and a 90-minute full-body massage about 250 RMB (about $33).

Thanksgiving in Beijing

Greg and Margery, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and Margery's mom visited us in Beijing for Thanksgiving. We spent the day at the Great Wall and then had a feast at Da Dong Peking Duck restaurant. There are numerous big hotels in Beijing that offer traditional American Thanksgiving dinners with turkey, stuffing, and all the fixings, but my general rule of thumb in China has been to stick with what the Chinese do best rather than looking for (often poor) imitations of Western food.

Wang Jian and his wife Fen joined us for our not-so-traditional Thanksgiving feast (see photo... sorry its a bit dark, I don't have photoshop here with me). The next best approximation of turkey, I figured, was Peking Duck, so that was the centerpiece of our dinner (see photo of duck being carved). It was really yummy and, frankly, much better than most turkey I've had. Da Dong has turned out to be my #1 favorite restaurant in Beijing. They have a mashed yam, mashed plum, and candied orange dish that is to-die-for (see photo).

Of course, it wasn't the same as Thanksgiving back in the USA, but we had a great time.

Preparting for the Olympics

The entire city of Beijing is preparing for the 2008 Olympics. Everywhere I go in Beijing, I'm assaulted by Olympics merchandise, new building construction, discussions about the air quality, and various propaganda. There is no mistaking the level of enthusiasm that people (and the government) in Beijing have for the 2008 Olympic Games.

The showcase building is the "birds nest" (see photo). This is the building to be used for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as some of the track and field events. It is controversial, but personally, I think it looks kind of cool. Since I arrived in September, whenever I ride in a taxi to the airport or along the same road, I crane my neck to look around the construction barriers to see the bird's nest and the nearby aquatics center, which I affectionately call the "bubble building" (see photo).

All of this neck-craning, however, came to an end on Saturday when we got an actual "tour" of the facilities. It wasn't really a "tour" because officially no one is allowed to come onto the construction site, but some magic worked by Leigh in our Stanford office opened the doors for us. We weren't able to get very close to the bird's nest because the mayor was on site, but we got up close to the aquatics center, were able to look down the row of Olympic buildings (see photo), and drove by Olympic Village. It was pretty cool to see how its all coming together.

A Different View of Time

Anyone who knows me knows that planning is in my blood. I just can't help it. I think its genetic. Being in China, however, has given me a very different view of time. When I first arrived in September, I kept trying to plan ahead for meetings and schedule things in advance, but I was continually faced with the response, "I don't know what my schedule will be that far in advance." Eventually, I got it, the Chinese (at least in Beijing), schedule "as they go." For example, I once asked a colleague of mine if she could contact someone at a local company and schedule a meeting. She agreed, but only if I was prepared to meet with that person this week. If not, it made no sense to make contact yet, e.g. until I was actually ready to meet. I was told that as long as people didn't schedule meetings in advance, their schedules were open for meetings that needed to happen. As long as schedules are open, why plan ahead? I had a similar experience with a class field trip that I'd set up 3 months ahead. Three days before the field trip, our host contacted me and asked if we could postpone it for a week. Fortunately, by this time, I (and the students) had learned to "go with the flow" and we just juggled things around and all worked out fine.

The cost of airline tickets supports this view of time. Instead of costing less to book your flights early, it costs more! I tried once to book a flight a month in advance and was told that I'd pay full fare, but if I waited a few weeks, I could get a discounted rate. In fact, they won't even confirm tickets on domestic flights until two months ahead.

Although it challenges my natural tendencies to plan ahead, I'm kind of enjoying this new way of operating. My calendar is open so that I have more flexibility and its less stressful. If, after I get home, you request a meeting or are planning a social engagement and I say "I just don't know what I'll be doing then," you'll know where it came from! Let's see how long I can last before the planning gene reasserts itself.

Pingyao - The Ancient Center of Finance

During Mark's recent visit, we went to Pingyao for the weekend. Pingyao is known for being the financial center of China. Paper money was invented here and this is where the first banks came into being. It is also known as one of the best preserved walled cities in China. We stayed in an ancient courtyard hotel, so it was really like stepping back in time. The photos show one of the watch towers on the city wall. As we were strolling the streets, Mark was approached by a group of boys who were doing a class homework assignment. They had to speak English with the foreigner, take his picture (with the students), and get him to write his name in a book. Mark did all of this, then insisted on a picture with them. It was great fun!

On the second day, we want to Mr. Xiao's (pronounced Chow's) Residence which is a huge courtyard home where the movie Raise the Red Lanterns was filmed. I remember loving that movie and it was really cool to see the courtyards where all of this took place. In case I haven't mentioned it, courtyard homes were a standard style here in China and many of them survive today. The basic structure is 4 rooms around a central courtyard. Oftentimes, the extended family lived in the courtyard home with each family group having a room off of the courtyard. Wealthier families would have multiple courtyards with 4 rooms off of each. Mr. Xiao (a wealthy merchant who made money from tofu and soy bean products) had a residence with at least 10 courtyards (many of which housed his concubines and their children).

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

The movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was filmed in the Anhui province of China. For our class field trip, we went to Huang Shan which is a beautiful mountain in Anhui where the fog floats in and around the dramatic peaks and makes the whole place feel very mysterious. I think this is probably the most beautiful place I've been in China so far. I took loads of pictures and provide a few of them here. If you look closely at the first photo in the group, you can see the stairs winding up the side of one of the hill. We stayed at one of the handful of hotels on the top of the mountain, so we managed to see both sunset and sunrise. One of the photos shows me with Xiaohong and Leigh (the staff at the Stanford office here in Beijing) at sunrise. Hiking down the mountain, we ran across numerous men carrying supplies up the mountain (see photos of a man carrying a metal beam and another group carrying bags filled with bricks). The man carrying the beam told us that he makes 10 RMB (about $1.30) per trip and can make about 4 trips per day. He carried about 150 lbs each trip. That's hard labor! It was also possible to hire a sedan chair and be carried up or down the mountain by two hearty men. I kept threatening to do this, but it would have been so embarrassing... I also worried that if one of them tripped, I'd be dumped off the side of the mountain!

Street Snacks

All around Beijing, there are opportnities to buy snacks on the street. These range from the bizzarre at Snack Street to little candied "apples" at parks and on street corners. Snack street is a block-long attraction in downtown Beijing where vendors (highly regulated these days) hawk everything from deep fried soft shell crabs, to fruit, to crickets (yes, insects), to scorpians on a stick (see photo of what Snack Street has to offer). I haven't been daring enough to go beyond the soft shell crabs, although I've witnessed others chomping down on scorpians... yum! Snack Street is a bit of an anomalie, but elsewhere in Bejing, we frequently see chestnuts roasting, fresh kettle corn popping, jian bing (a snack in which a crepe is folded over a chunk of deep fried dough and slathered with sauce... honestly, not my favorite snack, but very popular with the students), and the omnipresent candied hawthorne. The hawthorne (see photo) looks a lot like a small candied apple, but they're more tart and really tasty. After an internet search, we discovered that the "haw" (as its locally known) or hawthorne is a relative of the rose and has great medicinal properties (e.g. alieviates stomach ailments as well as heart disease). I guess I'll have to eat more of them :-)

Cooking Class

On Monday nights for six weeks, I have the pleasure of going to the Li house for cooking class and dinner. Actually, its more dinner than cooking class, but we're learning a thing or two about how to fry a fish (see photo) and make dumplings with folds in all the right places. Grandma Li is hosting two Stanford students and me. She is all smiles and laughs and a joy to be around (see photo of Grandma Li in her kitchen). She speaks almost no English, but fortunately the two students, AJ and Jeff, help keep me in the loop. Every week, we sit down to an incredibly good dinner with Grandma Li and sometimes her grandson (see photo of Jeff, Grandma Li, AJ, and Grandma Li's grandson), her daughter and son-in-law. This has been one of the highlights of my stay in Beijing.

Fall in Beijing

Over the last week, the temperature has dropped and the leaves have begun to turn bright reds and yellows. It is a treat to see the fall colors. This weekend, we took a class trip to a rural area north of Beijing. Here are some photos of the countryside and with me picking Fuji apples at a U-pick-it farm (these farms are all around Beijing and you can pick just about any fruit that grows around here).

My mom and I also took a tour down the canal that runs from downtown Beijing to the Summer Palace. We visited several temples and the Purple Bamboo Park. Here are some pictures of persimmons and ginko that are just getting ripe.

The weather is cold and getting colder. Last night, it was about 1 degree C. I've invested in a new coat and heavy pajamas. Buildings are not allowed to be heated until November 1 (regardless of the weather), so we're bundling up at night to keep warm... oh, being the thin blooded person that I am, I also have two space heaters.

Grocery Shopping is a Whole New Experience

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Mark and I had bought bicycles so that we could bring home our groceries. Here's a photo of our bikes all loaded down when my mom and I went grocery shopping last week. I thought that the bucket hanging from the back of the bike rack was a particularly nice touch.

A Slow Boat in China

Yangshuo is described as a "backpacker's paradise" and I can see why. The town is small, clean and quaint and people were incredibly friendly. The real reason though is the amazing countryside. Yangshuo sits on the River Li in the midst of karst limestone peaks (see photo along the river). We stayed in Yangshuo and traveled both up and down river on small boats (see my mom getting off of our boat at the rest stop). We left around sunrise and floated downriver until we reached a very small village. The villagers set up shop along the river bank and sold fresh fried food (crab, river shrimp, taro cakes, etc.) to the tourists for breakfast. It was wonderful.

Down river, we went to Liugong and Fuli. These were charming little riverside villages dating back to the Song dynasty. At Liugong, we spent most of the afternoon with a local woman who was teaching herself English and wanted to practice with us. We learned Chinese from her and helped her with her English (see photo with she and my sister, Debbie). We never quite figured out what "blockage potatos" were meant to be on the local menu...

The Hotel of Modern Art

In mid-October, I met my mother and sister in Guilin which is in Southern China. It is a beautiful place. Our first stop was the Hotel of Modern Art which is half way between Guilin and Yangshuo (more on Yangshuo later). What a find. The HOMA is located in a 550 hectare art park that has outdoor sculpure gardens with pieces by over 100 international artists. they also have a workshop on site in which local artists are creating pottery, wood furniture, glassware, etc. The hotel was luxurious -- a great retreat from the bustle of China. Photos include the hotel exterior, an outdoor scuplture of a cartoon elephant, and the furniture workshop. I really wanted to buy one of those small chairs, but they were pretty pricey!

The Canteen Scene

On Peking University's campus, there are a seemingly infinite number of places to get food. They are divided into canteens and restaurants. The canteens are where most students eat. At canteens, you get your food either by ordering from a counter or by picking plates of food from a line, e.g. cafeteria-style. A meal at a canteen is about 5-8 yuan (approx. $1) and must be paid for with a university meal card (you get issued a card and can add money to it as needed). Restaurants have somewhat better food and there are servers who take your order and bring food to the table. The cost of a meal at a restaurant varies, but generally runs about 30-40 yuan (approx. $5) per person.

The variety of canteens is amazing. One of my favorites is the noodle canteen. At this canteen, you can get a huge variety of noodles... noodles in soup, fried noodles, rice noodles, soybean noodles, flour noodles, fat noodles, thin noodles, noodles with beef, noodles with pork, etc. See photos of the noodle canteen and the menu. The funny thing about the noodle canteen is that the menu has Chinese characters and English, but it doesn't have pinyin (which provides the pronunciation of the Chinese characters for us English speakers). So, I can figure out what kind of noodles I'd like, but I can't order them directly. To make matters more interesting, you can't order any noodle dish from any line. You have to know which lines are serving which noodle dishes, but this is only in Chinese characters. To survive the noodle canteen I've devised a strategy where I stand in any line and listen to what the 2-3 people ahead of me order. I then look at what noodle dish they walk away with and, if it looks good, I order it by saying what they said. So far, I've had some pretty good noodles!

The dumpling canteen next door also looks pretty good. I haven't tried it yet though. Around the corner is a canteen that service regional food from all over China. That's still on my "to do" list too.

Today, I tried the mega-canteen. This is a huge canteen that takes up the bottom floor of one of the buildings on campus (see photo). Food is served cafeteria-style (see photo). I particularly like the baskets with buns, filled and not filled, of various shapes and sizes (see photo). The food? Well, let's just say I won't rush back to this one. I think I had spam for lunch. The sauce was tasty, but even a good sauce can't make spam palatable.