Welcome to my China blog

Welcome- This posting will always be at the top as I will change the date every time I update the blog. Furthermore, I will put in the comments what has been added because everything has not always been in sequence. Please check back often.

So here it is. Less than a week away for departure to home in Springfield, MO (Friday, December 19, 2008 to be exact). I want to go home and see family and friends as I miss everyone. BUT a big part of me will still be longing to be in China. I really enjoyed it here over the last four moths. Not every day was a smiling and exciting moment but most of them were.

I am sitting in Shanghai right now (my last domestic China trip) while writing and know that this is the city in which I would ideally come live and work when I return. China was nothing I expected it to be. It was better.

So my two papers are done. I have 3 tests to give and one to take of my own on Monday and Tuesday. Turn grades in on Wednesday morning and do some shopping in Dalian Wednesday afternoon. Pack Thursday and fly home Friday (Dalian ->Beijing ->Chicago ->Springfield). Once I get home the holidays are in full swing. After Christmas, Doug and I are joining friends in Vegas for a week long trip for New Year's so if you don't hear from me right away, please don't think I am avoiding you. I hope to see/talk with everyone by the middle of January before starting my last semester of grad school (YEA!!!).

I am still sorting through the 500+ pictures that I have taken and will continue adding to the blog even when I do get home so that everyone can easily read about my experiences and see the pictures. Happy Holidays (Holy Days) everyone!!!

Zai jian
Isaac
(Wang Fei Long)

11/29/08 Addition - Kylie X concert in Shanghai

Kylie X 2008 Concert - Shanghai

Here is one of the most fun and interesting things I got to do in China. Kylie Minogue's "Kylie X 2008" concert tour came to Shanghai and I was invited to go by my friend Eric who lives here. In the US, Kylie is not as popular and in China she is even less however her popularity seems to be growing exponentially.

She opened the concert with "Speakerphone," her most popular song off the Kylie X album according to iTunes. Throughout the concert she wore 6 different outfits (as depicted in the pictures) and danced some great choreographed moves. Looking at the photos you will notice that several outfits especially the last one did not always cover well when performing in an outdoor soccer stadium (Hongkou Stadium) in 35 F temperatures. And she mentioned it too.

To the pics - I already mentioned the last six pictures are Kylie's outfits in the order she wore them for the performance. Pic 1 is the advertisement banner outside Hongkou Stadium promoting the concert. Pic 2 is of my friends Eric (on the right) and Paul from the UK (on the left) in our seats before the concert began. A big thanks to Paul for letting us ride with him to/from the concert in his private car...made it much more enjoyable. And a big thanks to Eric for the invitation and connection to the great seats on the floor 9 rows back. It was AWESOME!

Dalian's First Snow

Today Dalian had its first snow...which is actually a little early. Talking to Rachel who has lived here most of her life Dalian gets very little snow. And snow in November is not common. It wasn't a big snow....maybe 1.5 inches....enough to make everything glisten with white. It actually started at 7:30 this morning and ended around 2 pm. Unfortunately my pics were taken after the snow stopped falling. At times the falling snow was quite thick with large flakes.

Pic 1 is Lantian Jie, the street in front of my apartment. Pics 2-4 are the path I take to school.

Shanghai World Financial Center

The Shanghai World Financial Center - tallest building in the world by roof height at 492 meters (1,614 feet). This is the third tallest building in the world if you include others with antennae mounted on the top. If I saw nothing else in Shanghai, this is what I wanted to see. And that we did by visiting all three observatory levels...floors 94, 97, and 100. Floor 100 is the highest observation deck in the world at 474 meters (~1,555 feet). In addition to being the highest deck, floor 100 (AKA the Sky Walk) is also unique in that it has a glass floor depicted in pictures 3 and 4.

Pic 1 is a vertical shot up from the ground. Pic 2 is a night shot of the SWFC and Jin Mao Tower (2nd tallest building in Shanghai). From the ground you cannot see the height difference between the 2 buildings. But when you get in the buildings...WOW...there is a huge difference as the Jin Mao Tower is only 421 meters tall (1,381 feet). Pic 3 is my left foot on the glass floor. Pic 4 looks down at a street below through the glass floor. Finally pic 5 is our Shanghai holiday weekend crew (from left to right...Ron, Jill, ME, Lauren, and Gary).

It was a cloudy rainy day when we were there so pictures of the city were blah. But visit the official observation website at http://www.swfc-observatory.com/en/ for an excellent 360 degree view.

Shanghai Maglev

My friends Jill and Lauren traveled down to Shanghai with me on Halloween. When we arrived my UK friend Gary guided us through the Shanghai Pudong International Airport to the Maglev. The Maglev train is a high speed magnetic levitation train like those in Japan. It travels between PIA and Longyang Road station on the line 2 subway. During peak operation hours the train runs at 431 kmh (268 mph) and takes less than 8 minutes to go 30 km (18.6 miles).

Pic 1 is a shot of the front end of the Maglev. Pic 2 is a quick shot outside when were traveling full speed. Pic 3 is a shot of the digital speedometer readout located at the head of each car.

Shaanxi Farming

On our way to and from Fufeng, the little town where FaMenSi Temple is located, we had quite a bit of farm country to drive through. It was a nice change from the cityscape that we were now accustomed to seeing day in-day out. Fortunately for me this was harvest time for corn so I took some interesting shots.

Pics 1 & 2 are of the farm laborers gathering corn not with good 'ol John Deere combines and the such but by hand.

Pic 3 is a wide load of corn stalks that have been gathered and loaded on a 3 wheel light truck. The driver was passing through Fufeng.

Pic 4 is an interesting picture of what appears to be a multipurpose vehicle although I was not able to confirm this for sure. If you look closely, the front half looks like an oversized garden tiller. Behind it is a trailer hitched to the tiller that carries all kinds of loads as well as provides a seat for the driver. Quite a few of these vehicles were running around in Fufeng.

FaMenSi Temple- Home of Buddha's finger

First stop was the active Famen Buddhist Monastery (AKA- FamenSi or “Doorway Temple”). FamenSi was originally constructed in about 200 AD. However, it has been destroyed and rebuilt so many times that it is now a fairly modern structure. The last rebuild was in 1981 when the collapse of the 12-story pagoda led to the discovery of another amazing archaeological find. Beneath the pagoda was a sealed crypt containing a variety of relics that had been forgotten for over 1000 years. Chief among these were four sacred finger bones of the original Buddha. (Apparently, somewhere along the line, as a gesture of goodwill and/or penance, an Indian king traveled around the world giving bits of the original Buddha to various temples, and FaMenSi got a finger.)

The funniest thing we saw here was a monk wearing ear buds connected to an iPod. My friend Jenni got his picture but I haven't procured it yet. You are more than welcome to CLICK HERE to go to the official website. However, you must be capable of reading Chinese characters as there are no English translations. BUT the pictures are pretty brilliant and interesting.

Chinese National Day on Mount Hua (HuaShan)

Chinese National Day is the celebration for the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The holiday generally gives a majority of the population one week off. This is the week we traveled to Xi'an which I am glad we did. However, coming to the beautiful Hua Shan mountain on the actual Chinese National Day was not the smartest decision.

We waited 2.5 hours to even get on a bus to go up to the base of the mountain. Phil, Stephanie, Lauren, and I decided to climb to the top of the north peak while Shawna, Jenni, Spencer, Sydney, and our tour guide Eric waited in line for the cable car that took you there. It took 1 hour 40 mins to climb the path (elevation of 5,295 feet). At times the path was quite vertical or suspended off the mountain side but nonetheless fun. Jenni, Shawna, and the kids (Spencer & Sydney) waited 3 hours to take the cable car up.

Here is the interesting part that made me a little uncomfortable. We had no idea that there would be thousands of people waiting at the top to come back down from the mountain. It was so jammed packed that if one person fell or tripped, everyone behind would be going down the side of the mountain with them. Unfortunately I was only able to capture this in a video which I will post when I get to the US. On top of that we were all split up and told that there were no more tickets to get down on the cable car. The guards would only let Phil through to try and find his family. Stephanie, Lauren, and I stayed up on a ledge within sight so Phil would know where we are. Dusk was upon us and the air was getting chilly. Finally Eric came out and motioned us down. We fought through the crowd to get to an exit gate and slipped in with some men escorted by guards. The cable car ride down was 5 mins and much easier than going up.

What did I take away from this- rule of thumb: if you are going to travel on Chinese National Day, leave China or stay home. (^^,) Some day I hope to go back to Hua Shan on an uneventful day and climb the other peaks.

Pic 1 is towards the bottom of the path as we are ascending. In the upper left hand corner are the cable cars passing by overhead.
Pic 2 is of Lauren (left) and Stephanie (right) demonstrating some of the chain railed stairs we had to climb to get to the top. These increased in number the closer to the top we were.
Pic 3 is still along the path on the upper half. I think Phil took this one hanging out over the edge of the path. I was not about to do that...LOL!
Pic 4 is at the top looking back down towards the valley. Again get a little glimpse of cable cars on the left middle part of the picture. Unfortunately it was another foggy day so you can't see much beyond the cloud.
Pic 5 is a hsot of the hotel that is on the North Peak and available for overnight stays. People will come and stay here and then hike to the east peak to watch the sun rise. This pic is as close to showing some of the crowds...but most of the people where either above or below us...so it's no the best.

For more info on Mount Hua (HuaShan) CLICK HERE

Eighth Wonder of the World

Eighth Wonder of the World - The tomb of the First Emperor of Qin - Qin Shi Huang and his terracotta army.

Reportedly there were 8000+ clay soldiers created and buried in the tomb to protect the Emperor in his next life. Emperor Qin made a lot of enemies as he was quite aggressive and waged many wars on neighboring states. Less than five years after his death, the Emperor's tomb was raided by General Xiang Yu for the weapons the soliders held and other items of value. Once they took what they wanted from the tomb, they supposedly busted many of the soldiers and set fire to the tomb causing structural beams to collapse.

The tomb was discovered in 1974 by 4 farmers who were drilling a well. Today only one of those farmers is alive. He comes to the grounds and signs books for sale in the "gift shop" area. Here is a funny little story though. Phil and Jenni bought a book and had it signed. A few days later some friends of their came through and bought the same book and had it signed as well. Now a sign above the farmer's chair says no pictures. In fact Jenni tried when we were there and he flipped out a fan to cover his face. Somehow their friends were able to snap a shot secretly (I guess). When everyone came back to Dalian and were sharing pics, their friends were showing the pic of the farmer to Phil and telling him, "This is the surviving farmer." Phil looked at the pic and said, "Uh, that's not the guy we saw." So they pulled out their books and comared signatures. They didn't match....OH WELL...so we don't know if we saw the real farmer or not....and really it is no big deal...but it does make a great, little story.

So to the pics. Pics 1-5 are various shots in pit 1 (there are three pits available for viewing). Pic 6 is from pit 2 and shows how not all of the tomb is in tact. Pic 7 is from pit 3 showing the collapsed roofs of unexcavated parts of the tomb.

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

This was the first pagoda we were able to go into and view the city. It is 7 stories tall and made of brick. Pic 1 and Pic 2 are of the pagoda itself. Pic 3 is looking out onto the north square. And pic 4 just struck me kind of funny with this dragon head sticking out as a drain spout for the tiled upper courtyard.

For more information on the Big Wild Goose Pagoda Click Here

The Great Wall - Badaling

I visited the Great Wall on a misty September Sunday afternoon. Taking the Beijing Tour Company tour instead of the more expensive English speaking hotel tour was quite a treat for practicing my Chinese listening skills...unfortunately with limited (very limited) Chinese speaking skills I only heard "Yes" and "No" and something about a horse when we drove by this statue on the way there.

Fortunately I had a very friendly Chinese girl around my age sitting behind us on the bus. She lived and worked in Australia (so her English was great) but was back in China visiting her family on holiday. She did a little interpreting when we needed to know something important from the tour guide. Most of the informational signs were in English as well as Chinese which was quite helpful.

We visited the section of wall known as "North Pass" of Juyongguan pass which is more simply referred to as the "Badaling". This is a very well maintained section of the wall north of Beijing by about a 1 hour tour bus ride away.

When we arrived, there was a throng of people trying to enter (and exit) through a little tiny door that led up to the top of the wall. The easiest way to get away from the crowds was to climb. And climb we did. I am pretty fit especially in my legs from all the squats in the gym. But nothing in the gym prepared me for the 40 degree angles and thousands of stairs to get to the top of the ridge. Getting there was worth the view. Yeah the mist limited the view but in a way it added to the mystical feel of being on "The Great Wall".

The pics are self explanatory I think. First one is of me with the wall coming out of my head (LOL). Second one is with the crowd looking up at the Guard House/Watch Tower that we would pass through. Third is a great pic of some of the stairs we faced to get up the ridge. The fourth and fifth ones (if you click on any pic, it will take you to a larger version) are pretty much from the top of the section we climbed. The last pic was taken from the road leading to our parking lot. I was able to hit Beijing while quite a bit of the Olympic decorations were still up. This is on the side of the hill in front of the wall. You can see the Great Wall off in the upper left corner.

I can now check off visiting one of the "7 wonders of the World".

Nothing like trying something new

So while I was in Beijing I thought I would try some scorpions on a stick. You know when in China...do as the Chinese do type thing. Funny thing is I was getting a lot of funny looks from the Chinese ;) Just as a precaution, I did not eat the stinger at the end of the scorpions tail.

Would I do it again? Sure...they tasted pretty good. Most of the taste was the peanut oil used to grill/fry them. (Costper stick of 4 = 20RMB ($2.94)

As you can see, sea horses were also available, but the thought of eating a cute little sea horse did not appeal.