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.