Fragrant Hills Park

My students, mostly college aged, asked me last week if I would like to meet them at 8am on Saturday morning to go to Fragrant Hills Park and see the fall foliage.  Having never experienced autumn anywhere outside of Beijing, this is the only tradition I have ever participated in: the yearly pilgrimage to see fall leaves.  In previous years we have heard stories of how packed the most famous park, Fragrant Hills park, is and have avoided it at all costs, settling for lesser known outlets.  However, this year, I decided to take them up on it and experience this epic tourist journey in full Chinese style.  Justin, in an effort to support me and my career, came along.

I am chronically late, but Justin and I were on time, which I cannot say for my students.  Having lived in Beijing for 2 1/2 years, we are seasoned veterans compared to many of them.  They have come to the "big city" to study English and are constantly getting lost on buses.  At about 9am we were all together and boarded a public bus (after having waited in a longer line to have the priviledge of seats, of course).  An hour later we arrived and plunged into the current of humanity streaming up the stairs to the top of the mountain.  Conversation was interesting as my students tried their best to make small talk with Justin and I.  At one point, one of them asked me if there were this many people in America.  I, of course, told her "no", trying to imagine a Disney World line - including vendors, pushing, and litter - along the Appalachian Trail.  She told me that Chinese people have had to learn to see the beauty in other people's faces, as well as in nature, which I thought was a pretty good technique.

Some of my students (and me)

This sign says "Hard Work Room", one of my students suggested Justin have his picture taken here after she saw him sending work emails on a Saturday

After an hour or two we got to the top, spread out some paper on the ground and ate lunch.  The students asked Justin and I to teach them an American card game so we taught them "Spoons".  The consequence for losing was a dare, and they had a blast coming up with embarrasing things to make each other do.  Actually, they had a blast waiting for Justin and I to think of things. 

A few hours later, when it became clear they wanted to stay until nightfall, we excused ourselves and took the cable car back down.

View of Beijing

We're always on the outside in our Chinese tourism experiences, so for once, it was nice to be treated as one of the bunch.  I only had two random people ask to take their picture with me all day.  ;-)

National Day - Chengdu and Leshan

After Songpan we headed back to Chengdu, the capitol of Sichuan, and from there went to LeShan to see "Dafo" an unbelievable 71-meter high representation of Buddha carved into the side of a mountain in 713 AD.  Here we did run into some tourists, but I can't imagine how bad it would normally be.  Dafo looks over a large body of water, so first we took a boat to get a glimpse from beneath him, then we hiked up next to his head.  

All Aboard!  During peak season you can see the boat tipping as tourists rush to the side closest to Dafo to take pictures.  Yikes!

The next day we left bright and early to get a chance to see China's most lovable creature, the panda, which Sichuan is most famous for.  We got there while they were still eating and they were beautiful.  The best part was the baby nursery, where the cutest little guys were being loved on by the staff.  Unfortunately, photos were not permitted in that area. 

Mom and baby 

A very friendly panda

The highlight of a trip to Sichuan is the spicy food and we enjoyed quite a bit of it.  Sichuan food is described as "ma la" which means "numb and spicy", and that's an excellent description.  Sichuan people believe that in the summer it's best to eat spicy food because it makes you sweat which cools you down.  The weather was cold while we were there, so I'm not sure what the theory is then, but we were definitely sweating.

Overall it was a great trip.  Wonderful food, beautiful scenery, unique experiences.

National Day - Songpan

Next we headed off to Songpan, a small town in northern Sichuan. (Tourism was so bad that the driver that had brought us from the airport to Jiuzhaigou hung around the hotel for two days to take us.)  We had a great time checking out the local architecture, drinking tea, talking to friendly people (in addition to Han and Tibetan, there is also a large Muslim community here) and exploring a local slaughterhouse. 

Muslim men relaxing by the city wall

Some little friends

I wish I could say no animals were harmed in the making of this blog... 

A very old Tibetan man took 30 minutes to show Justin this incredible horn, and the whole town got to hear Justin try it out.  He and his wife then invited us to share their dinner.

Making wool quilts

After a day exploring the town, we set off into the mountains on a three day horse trek with two local guides.  This was the ultimate camping experience: the horses carried everything and the guides set up camp, got firewood, cooked food, etc. so we basically relaxed the whole time.  People say Songpan is the true beginning of the Tibetan culture, and they are right.  We travelled through many small Tibetan villages where the traditional dress is worn and monks roam around town.

Yakity - Yak don't talk back!

Setting up camp

I'm not the only one who needed a change of shoes after a long day

A very little cowboy

Wild strawberries, yum!

Tibetan prayer wheels

Our guides: Li Yuan Bo and Yei Feng Hao

National Day - Jiuzhaigou

National Day holiday is October 1st in China and it's one of two week long holidays where the entire country is free from school/work at the same time.  Usually we try to get OUT of the country in order to avoid the nightmare which is inevitable when 1.3 billion tourists are on the move.  This year we had hoped to go to Laos or Cambodia with Stacey and Derek again, but due to the guys last minute notice on work schedules it didn't work out.   SO, we ended up going to Sichuan province which unfortunately had a devastating earthquake hit earlier this year, but because of that disaster the tourists were few and far between, which was (selfishly) fortunate for us.

We flew into Chengdu, the capitol of Sichuan and then headed to Jiuzhaigou the next morning.  Due to a total freak incident, perhaps because we were the only foreigners at the entire airport, we ended up in first class - both of us for the first time ever.  This enjoyable experience was shortlived however, due to the fact that the flight was only 45 minutes long.  Oh well, it was great to be jet-setters for a brief stint.  

Flyin' in style

Jiuzhaigou has a famous National Park which is absolutely breathtaking.  In a country where environmental concerns have not been at the top of the priority list, it was amazing to see a place so well preserved and protected.  We spent the day hiking various trails and being overwhelmed by the range of colors present in nature.  Northern Sichuan's elevation is between 3000 - 4000 meters, so we were feeling some of the effects with shortness of breath and headaches.

Autumn

Weather forcast: dropping temperatures with a sure bet on rain.  Look out for falling leaves.  

As a native Florida girl who experienced seasons for the first time at age 26, when I moved to Beijing, it's hard for me to get over the feeling of dread that comes with the first sign of a chill in the air.  I am trying to learn to adjust to enjoying Autumn without sucumbing to complete terror for the season that lies around the corner: WINTER.  As I tear the pages of my calendar and add layer upon layer of clothing, as my hands become more numb on the bike to work and my feet take longer to thaw upon my arrival, I know winter is coming soon.

This is a big deal in Beijing.  One of my favorite things about the city are the signs of life all around taking place in the street.  Since people's living spaces are so small, especially in the traditional housing which wind down long alleyways - called hutongs, they spend a lot of time outside.  

I love seeing:

Elderly women sitting on low stools playing mahjong and old men playing cards with a crowd of spectators surrounding them.  

A crowd at a self-imposed recycling center on the side of the road where people from all over sell their recyclable finds to some guy with a truck.

Restaurants with makeshift outdoor eating at low tables with stools, and guys marking their manliness by the number of beer bottles and kebab skewers that litter the ground.

Couples, young and old, taking a walk (called a sanbu) in their pajamas after dinner.

Migrant workers at payphones making calls to the wives and children they get to see once a year.

A woman on the corner wearing a lab coat and giving 50 cent haircuts to a patron sitting on a stool.

Kids playing badmitton and babies running around in crotchless pants and peeing on the street.

Groups of people doing Tai Chi to music in any open space large enough to get organized.

A 90-year-old man who sits on a chair everyday and watches the world go by perhaps living vicariously through the busyness he sees in other people's lives.

It's not that all of these things will stop once winter rolls around, but the people will rush and become more hunched over in an obvious effort to conserve warmth.  And I won't be able to enjoy them as much as I hurry by to whatever warm indoor place I'm on my way to.  But that's life with seasons, I suppose, and when people start peeking their heads out next spring to enjoy the warm weather again, I'll be with them.

Lao Beijing (Sort of)

So, tonight was Girl's Night, which I was invited to by my friend Heather who has lived in Beijing for about two months.  The other girls who came were her friends, or friends of friends, most of whom had been in Beijing for even less time.

Having always lived in fairly Western apartments, worked for international companies, and spent time around an overwelhmingly expatriate crowd, I have never felt like much of an expert on Beijing.  However, as the girls brought up various topics tonight ranging from restaurants to bargaining to tailoring to lighting fixtures and apartment redecoration to wine glasses, I realized that I knew all the answers.  It was a very weird, but good, feeling.  After 2 1/2 years I can finally refer to "old" friends in Beijing and understand bottom prices and know the best way to get many things done.

In some ways being the expert for the night felt like a rite of passage, but as I made my way home and thought about the many errands I need to run tomorrow (and don't know how to say the words) and negotiating my lease for next year with my Chinese landlord, I also realized I have a long way to go.  Oh well...just keep pushing forward on the uphill climb.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival (also called Moon Festival) is a traditional Chinese holiday which is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Lunar Calendar.  It originated in China but is celebrated in other Asian countries.  

This is the first year that the Chinese government has given a day off work for Mid-Autumn Festival, and a number of other traditional Chinese holidays.  During this festival people eat mooncakes (hard cakes with various fillings), re-unite with their families and watch the moon, which is at its fullest point of the year.

I have, for 3 years now, tried to get someone to tell me the origin of the Mid-Autumn festival, to no avail.  The stories are so confusing and seem to have so m

any discrepancies, that I have never been able to crack the code on the real meaning.  So this year, I finally decided to look it up, and luckily for me, Wikipedia is not censored today.  

What I found explained a lot.  The reason the story seems so confusing is because there are actually at least six variations of it.  The most popular one is this (quoted from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival):

Houyi was an immortal, while Chang'e was a beautiful young girl, working in the Jade Emperor's (Emperor of Heaven) (玉帝 pinyin:yùdì) Palace as the attendant to the Queen Mother of the West (wife of the Jade Emperor), just before her marriage. One day, Houyi aroused the jealousy of the other immortals, who then slandered him before the Jade Emperor. Houyi and his wife, Chang'e, were subsequently banished from heaven, and forced to live by hunting on earth. He became a famous archer.

Now at this time, there were 10 suns, in the form of Three-legged birds, residing in a mulberrytree in the eastern sea; each day one of the sun birds would have to travel around the world on acarriage, driven by Xihe (deity) the 'mother' of the suns. One day, all 10 of the suns circled together, causing the earth to burn. Emperor Yao, the Emperor of China, commanded Houyi to shoot down all but one of the suns. Upon the completion of his task, the Emperor rewarded Houyi with a pill that granted eternal life, and advised him: "Make no haste to swallow this pill; first prepare yourself with prayer and fasting for a year".^[5] Houyi took the pill home and hid it under a rafter, while he began healing his spirit. While Houyi was healing his spirit, Houyi was summoned again by the emperor. Chang'e, noticing a white beam of light beckoning from the rafters, discovered the pill, which she swallowed. Immediately, she found that she could fly. At that moment, Houyi returned home, and, realizing what had happened, began to reprimand her. Chang'e flew out the window into the sky.^[5]

With a bow in hand, Houyi sped after her, and the pursuit continued halfway across the heavens. Finally, Houyi had to return to the Earth because of the force of the wind. Chang'e reached the moon, and breathless, she coughed. Part of the pill fell out from her mouth.^[5] Now, thehare was already on the moon, and Chang'e commanded the animal to make another pill from it, so that she could return to earth to her husband.

As of today, the hare is still pounding herbs, trying to make the pill. As for Houyi, he built himself a palace in the sun as "Yang" (the male principle), with Chang'e as "Yin" (the female principle). Once a year, on the 15th day of the full moon, Houyi visits his wife. That is why, that night, the moon is full and beautiful.^[5]

This description appears in written form in two Western Han dynasty (206 BCE-24 CE) collections; Shan Hai Jing, the Classic of the Mountains and Seas and Huainanzi, a philosophical classic.^[6]

I, now, feel satisfied that I may know more than my students about this topic.  Thanks Wikipedia!