Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is it. Six and a half weeks in the world's most populated country has finally come to a close. Here, I will describe the excellent time I had in Beijing and then wrap up this year's blog with some comments on the country.
We left Nanjing on a rainy Saturday night after a day of lounging around and playing cards. Our mode of transportation was an overnight sleeper train. The nonstop train was pretty fun- we played cards and watched a movie, then "slept" for five hours or so.
Unfortunately, the train got in at 7 am, so it was too early to check in to the hotel. Thus, we threw our bags in a storage room and headed straight out on our adventure. First, we visited the Ming Summer Palace. It was ok- the complex had a handful of buildings and a covered walkway encompassing a lake. It was really popular with the tourists, but there were many locals there as well - playing Christmas songs (common during our stay in China... I don't understand) on traditional instruments and enjoying the calm morning.
Next, we went to Tiananmen Square. I wish I could describe in words how impressive this place was. Of course, Chairman Mao looked out over the square from the Tiananmen (or 'Gate of Heavenly Peace'..ironic), but each side of the square was bordered by an important building. To the west is China's National Standing Committee building, where the highest officials of the communist party meet to choose policy. To the east is China's National Museum, currently under renovation but set to reopen for the World Expo 2010, hosted by Shanghai. Finally, to the south of the square is Chairman Mao's Mausoleum. Apparently, he lays in a crystal coffin on ice and is brought up for viewing from 8:30-11:30 every day. Creepy? I think so.
After taking in the square, we passed under the Chairman's picture into the Forbidden City. It was clearly a relic of dynasties past with it's traditional architecture and grandiosity. Each building along the central axis (the center of the city- the emperor's walkway in past times) was some building of heavenly peace. The Forbidden City was cool, but I was more impressed with Tiananmen Square. The thing about the Forbidden City was that it just kept going! Each building looked really similar to the previous ones, so it somewhat blended together. Nonetheless, it was amazing to think that generations of emperors walked along the pathway I had. Isn't that cool?
Finally, we returned to the hotel and cleaned up. Some of us decided to try out the subway and go to Hard Rock Cafe. It was your traditional HRC - expensive and generic - but it was still worthwhile. We had a fun evening.
On Monday (yeah, this is going to be a long blog post, but it's the last one so you can handle it), we trekked north of the city to see a section of the Great Wall. oooooh aaaahhhh special! Sure enough, it was great! It was huge! There were lots of stairs. I'm amazed that they could build a wall (not to mention a "great" one) over 3000 miles of mountains! I have yet to witness the pyramids at Giza, but I imagine this is a much greater feat of engineering. (I say this, but two people have already kibitzed at this notion, so I may be fighting an uphill battle! Now for a poll...) Anyway, we spent an hour climbing up a steep section of the wall and the view was amazing! Did I mention that this was the best weather-day of the entire trip? We had temperatures in the low 90s and a crystal clear blue sky. It was beauuuutiful! I could have spent hours up there. You have to watch out letting this civil engineer admire a public works project ;-)
After only an hour and a half, we continued our journey by visiting the Ming Tombs. In particular, we visited the tomb of Ming Chenglu, the emperor responsible for moving the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and constructing many of the famous sites we visited: the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, connecting segments of the Great Wall, and others. The tomb itself was covered by a dirt mound about 100 yards in diameter. Apparently, it has never been opened, so he lays in there just as he did hundreds of years ago. One day, I want to be cool enough to be buried under a mound with booby traps and secret passages. That would be fun.
Tuesday was our last full day in China. To begin, we visited the Ming Temple of Heaven. It is 38 meters high, but built completely without nails or fasteners! It is a round building with three tiers on the outside but only one open hall on the inside. Centered on a circular pedestal of three levels, it was larger than life compared to the bare square courtyard it stood in. Clearly, an emperor wishing to worship the gods would have no distractions with such a prominent structure to focus their attention. Even more impressive was that the roofs were painted a rich, deep blue and the timbers were all painted in the vibrant teal, dark blue, and gold colors that marked many of the ancient structures. It was so impressive!
In the afternoon, we finally got a taste of 21st century Beijing by seeing the Olympic green and buildings. First, we walked in and around the Water Cube. I got to see where Phelps won his eight gold medals! It was a stunning building and I could only imagine the intensity of being there during the Olympics! Next, we walked across the plaza to the Bird's Nest stadium where the ceremonies and track and field events were held. Even though the stage was being set up for a concert, we were still allowed to walk down on the track where all the events happened! Not surprisingly, it was an enormous stadium! I took plenty of pictures and tried to absorb what it must have been like to see athletes from across the world gathered there! If you had told me last August that I was going to stand on the floor of the Bird's Nest, I would have paid much closer attention to the opening ceremony! No worries, however - I got it on DVD for 100 Yuan ($15)!
To wrap up my trip, I spent my evening with two "Peking" activities - duck and opera. I found a restaurant that said "Beijing Duck" over the door, so I went in. Unfortunately, the only sold the roast duck whole. Undeterred, I purchased my $27 USD duck and worked my way through the mu shu wraps. They were sooo tasty, but I could only eat half the duck. *sigh* Next came the opera. The performance consisted of two 30-minute shows. Neither had a very succinct plot (the words were projected in English- that's how I know) but the music was really cool. The orchestra consisted of traditional Chinese instruments and was generally quite percussive. The performers were dressed in bright, elaborate costumes with standard Beijing opera face paint. In spite of the open ended plots, I had a great time and I'm definitely glad I went. It's just a shame that no one else wanted to spend the money to join me!
Finally, on Wednesday we headed to the airport and returned home. Beijing's Central Airport has one of the largest terminals in the world, so it was cool to look around and admire the structure. What wasn't cool was sitting at the gate (on the plane) for 2 hours while they determined which route over Siberia was optimal. Ugh. But 20 hours and 2 flights later I was finally back in Raleigh. Woo hoo!
Well, now I'm back. Six and a half weeks in China. Looking back, it's kind of hard to believe it went so quickly. While I was there, a lot of things seemed just like home- skyscrapers, food, people at work and play, traffic everywhere, and the sun rose and set every day. But now that I'm home, I see plenty of differences; there are many little subtleties that made China worth visiting and studying. From cultural intricacies to facets of politics, China has held a history separate from anywhere I have visited before, yet its rise and fall as a global power through history makes it inextricably tied to most countries across the globe.
This may seem like a contradiction, and in truth it is, for China is a country full of contradictions. It is a country that conflicts old with new traditions; eastern versus western ideals. The contradictions are everywhere, but to discuss them in detail would be too much for the limited scope of this text. Nonetheless, the people and the culture were generally very friendly and I will remember my experiences as long as I live.
So what now? I've traveled to Ecuador, Austria, and China. At this point, it would seem logical to expand my horizons to Australia or Africa, but even in the places I've visited there remains much to see and do. I am already excited for my next international opportunity, whether by internship, study, or independent travel... but for now, I'll merely meditate on the things I've seen and learned in China.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Friday, June 19th, 5:00 PM (Nanjing, China)
Goodbye Nanjing
Happy Friday, everyone! It is with mixed emotions that I write this last post from Nanjing. I intend to spend most of this post discussing the city as a whole and remembering some of the highlights of my stay here. Before I do that, however, I also did a few things this week worthy of mention.
This week’s class was about thermodynamics. I don’t know why, but the material seemed difficult to me. I thought the test was hard, but in the end, I still got an A+ for the course. Woo hoo! My afternoons this week have also been somewhat relaxed. On Monday afternoon, I returned to the Confucius Temple. Again. Obviously I really enjoyed spending time there. On Tuesday, I think I took a nap and hung around the hotel with the group. Nothing special there.
Wednesday’s excitement was going with Jeffrey to get a massage. I’ve never had a massage before, but at 45 Yuan ($6.50) for an hour, I couldn’t pass it up. The guy who did my massage was pretty young, and therefore I question if he knew what he was doing. He massaged my head, arms, legs (front and back), back, and neck. It was great except for my back… where I was sore for about a day! Oof. Nonetheless, it was a fun experience and (I’m fairly sure) I’m glad I did it! After the massage, Jeff and I found a corner stand and bought some authentic salted duck! We one half of two different types: light and dark. On the spot, the lady took each whole duck and hacked it (skin, bones, and all) into neat, cross sectional slices. They put each in a tray and we returned to the hotel with our duck. It was very tasty but also very salty! YUM!
On Thursday, I went for a walk before playing Chinese Chess with Jun, one of our student guides. My record against him is 1-2 now… and only because he let me win when he taught me. It’s quite the game, that’s for sure. It’s fairly easy to pick up the rules, but learning strategy is a completely different matter. Oh well, I have a set, so now I’ll have to teach some people and see if I can get better at it. After chess, we had our closing banquet with our SEU hosts. As usual, the meal came complete with a variety of foods I hadn’t ever tried, the obligatory fish with head and tail, and even a plate of snails! The snails were SO good… I definitely want to have more of those! Mmm. Anyway, there were many gifts to be passed around and we had a nice dinner.
Earlier in this post, I said I wanted to reminisce over my time in Nanjing, but now I think I’m going to leave a cliff hanger. Instead, I think it would be more appropriate to look forward to Beijing. Thus, here is a schedule of our remaining time in China. Currently it is almost 4:30 pm Beijing time or 4:30 am Friday EDT. For the next 24 hours, I will be finishing up packing, relaxing with the group, and maybe going to see one or two more casual things in Nanjing. We will have a couple meals as a group, but I also hope to have a couple more corner-store dumplings. Hmm- should I have rice, meat, or red bean? Or maybe I should have a sesame ball? I don’t know. Maybe all of it.
Tomorrow, we’re catching a 9:30 pm (Sat AM EDT) train out of Nanjing Railway Station, on the north side of Xuanwu Lake. Apparently we have soft berth tickets, so we’ll be able to sleep during the 8 hour or so train ride. For a comparison, Nanjing is at almost the same latitude as Atlanta and Beijing is at the same latitude as Philadelphia. It may not look far on a map, but looks can be deceiving. Arriving in Beijing on Sunday morning (Sat PM EDT), we will probably stop by the hotel and then head on our way. I don’t know what we’re seeing each day, but before we depart Beijing on Wednesday, we will be visiting the Great Wall, the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and (I think) Pearl Market. In addition, evenings are on our own, so I may attempt to go see an opera and/or meet up with the Caldwell group who happens to also be in Beijing, preparing to leave. We’ll see.
Our Boeing 777 flight leaves on Wednesday at 4:10 pm (Wed AM EDT) and arrives in Chicago at 4:30 pm CDT. How about that 20 minute flight to go half way around the world?! We will clear customs *crosses fingers* and then catch an 8:55 pm CDT flight that will arrive in Raleigh just before midnight.
Thursday will be my final blog post with highlights from Beijing as well as enough reminiscing, comparing, and concluding to make everyone tired of reading. After all, I have a 13 hour plane flight (and a “D” seat… UGH!) to write everything I can think of!
Happy Friday, everyone! It is with mixed emotions that I write this last post from Nanjing. I intend to spend most of this post discussing the city as a whole and remembering some of the highlights of my stay here. Before I do that, however, I also did a few things this week worthy of mention.
This week’s class was about thermodynamics. I don’t know why, but the material seemed difficult to me. I thought the test was hard, but in the end, I still got an A+ for the course. Woo hoo! My afternoons this week have also been somewhat relaxed. On Monday afternoon, I returned to the Confucius Temple. Again. Obviously I really enjoyed spending time there. On Tuesday, I think I took a nap and hung around the hotel with the group. Nothing special there.
Wednesday’s excitement was going with Jeffrey to get a massage. I’ve never had a massage before, but at 45 Yuan ($6.50) for an hour, I couldn’t pass it up. The guy who did my massage was pretty young, and therefore I question if he knew what he was doing. He massaged my head, arms, legs (front and back), back, and neck. It was great except for my back… where I was sore for about a day! Oof. Nonetheless, it was a fun experience and (I’m fairly sure) I’m glad I did it! After the massage, Jeff and I found a corner stand and bought some authentic salted duck! We one half of two different types: light and dark. On the spot, the lady took each whole duck and hacked it (skin, bones, and all) into neat, cross sectional slices. They put each in a tray and we returned to the hotel with our duck. It was very tasty but also very salty! YUM!
On Thursday, I went for a walk before playing Chinese Chess with Jun, one of our student guides. My record against him is 1-2 now… and only because he let me win when he taught me. It’s quite the game, that’s for sure. It’s fairly easy to pick up the rules, but learning strategy is a completely different matter. Oh well, I have a set, so now I’ll have to teach some people and see if I can get better at it. After chess, we had our closing banquet with our SEU hosts. As usual, the meal came complete with a variety of foods I hadn’t ever tried, the obligatory fish with head and tail, and even a plate of snails! The snails were SO good… I definitely want to have more of those! Mmm. Anyway, there were many gifts to be passed around and we had a nice dinner.
Earlier in this post, I said I wanted to reminisce over my time in Nanjing, but now I think I’m going to leave a cliff hanger. Instead, I think it would be more appropriate to look forward to Beijing. Thus, here is a schedule of our remaining time in China. Currently it is almost 4:30 pm Beijing time or 4:30 am Friday EDT. For the next 24 hours, I will be finishing up packing, relaxing with the group, and maybe going to see one or two more casual things in Nanjing. We will have a couple meals as a group, but I also hope to have a couple more corner-store dumplings. Hmm- should I have rice, meat, or red bean? Or maybe I should have a sesame ball? I don’t know. Maybe all of it.
Tomorrow, we’re catching a 9:30 pm (Sat AM EDT) train out of Nanjing Railway Station, on the north side of Xuanwu Lake. Apparently we have soft berth tickets, so we’ll be able to sleep during the 8 hour or so train ride. For a comparison, Nanjing is at almost the same latitude as Atlanta and Beijing is at the same latitude as Philadelphia. It may not look far on a map, but looks can be deceiving. Arriving in Beijing on Sunday morning (Sat PM EDT), we will probably stop by the hotel and then head on our way. I don’t know what we’re seeing each day, but before we depart Beijing on Wednesday, we will be visiting the Great Wall, the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and (I think) Pearl Market. In addition, evenings are on our own, so I may attempt to go see an opera and/or meet up with the Caldwell group who happens to also be in Beijing, preparing to leave. We’ll see.
Our Boeing 777 flight leaves on Wednesday at 4:10 pm (Wed AM EDT) and arrives in Chicago at 4:30 pm CDT. How about that 20 minute flight to go half way around the world?! We will clear customs *crosses fingers* and then catch an 8:55 pm CDT flight that will arrive in Raleigh just before midnight.
Thursday will be my final blog post with highlights from Beijing as well as enough reminiscing, comparing, and concluding to make everyone tired of reading. After all, I have a 13 hour plane flight (and a “D” seat… UGH!) to write everything I can think of!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Sunday, June 14th 2009, 11:41 PM (Nanjing, China)
Today was the last Sunday in Nanjing. It’s hard to believe that we’re up to our “lasts” but sure enough, five weeks have passed since we departed the US. Thankfully, this week provided some excellent opportunities for me, so I now feel as if I’ve really taken advantage of the city.
Tuesday – it seems so long ago – we all went to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. The memorial remembers the 300,000 civilians and soldiers who died when Japanese troops raided the city in late 1937. From mid-December through January 1938, the Japanese killed, looted, and raped anyone they could find. They forced civilians to line up in front of mass graves, where they were shot one after the other. People were killed in every way possible: burned alive, beheaded, stabbed, bayoneted, and others. In the end, over 20,000 cases of rape were reported. It was an inhumane slaughter.
The memorial had two parts. First, guests were led through a comprehensive museum of accounts, artifacts, and descriptions from the massacre. It was amazing to read so many accounts of what happened- from locals who escaped (one was at the bottom of the pile of corpses when they burned them with kerosene to hastily) to Japanese soldiers to international witnesses who set up a refugee zone. Two things particularly stuck out to me in this museum. After reading about the deaths of all the innocent civilians, I can only wonder what the Chinese think of the atomic bomb. We in the United States like to say that it saved lives in the long run, but who were we to destroy the lives of so many innocent people? The other aspect that made an impact was Nanjing’s source of international aid. Within the city, Dr. John Rabe set up a zone for Nanjing refugees. Many fled there, seeking medical and emotional aid. Along with Dr. Rabe, several embassies and the League of Nations also contributed support. It seems like a great and noble effort until one realizes that Dr. Rabe was a German ambassador with Hitler’s support! How could the Germans condemn the Japanese-inflicted genocide immediately before committing their own holocaust! The world is upside down. Wednesday’s shooting at Washington’s Holocaust museum proves that as a fact.
The other part of the memorial was a mass grave. We walked around the circumference of the grave – a “field” of tan, baseball-sized granite stones – before entering a climate controlled room that showed an archeological excavation. Skeletons were mixed and piled close together. Signs showed readers where victims had been bludgeoned, stabbed, and carelessly buried. I will definitely never forget it.
Just as I was feeling bitter towards the Japanese for the atrocity they had committed, I read a quote from someone I cannot remember: “What we must remember is history, not hatred.” Indeed. Like the holocaust, we must never let such suffering fade from our memory, lest history repeat itself.
After finishing at the memorial, I desired to reflect on what I had seen, so I walked to nearby Mochou Lake Park. I wandered amongst the ponds filled with lily pads and along the walkways that surrounded the lake. A dragonboat team was practicing about 70 yards off shore while families and couples meandered about carelessly. It was very peaceful; just what I needed.
On Wednesday and Thursday I wandered aimlessly after class. It was good to get out and see parts of the city with no particular destination! I also studied for my Friday test, which went very well.
On Friday, we went to see the Presidential Palace, originally constructed in the Ming Dynasty but since occupied by many heads of state. The complex included many buildings joined by covered walkways, some ponds and fountains, some gardens, and plenty of rocks. Most notably, the palace was occupied by Dr. Sun Yat-Sen and the Nationalist Party until the Communists moved the capital to Beijing in 1949.
I thought the best part of the palace was a museum to Dr. Sun. It followed the story of his life and how he fought so hard for democracy. He went to school in Hawaii but used Chinese populations in San Francisco, Japan, Taiwan, and China to build a revolution strong enough to overthrow the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Following the successful revolution, he established a constitution and resigned from the presidency to show he was not another power-hungry dictator. Unfortunately, his successor reverted to old ways by 1914, and Dr. Sun was forced to mount another revolution. Unfortunately, the second revolution failed and he spent the rest of his life campaigning for unity between the north and south and for democracy as a whole. He died of liver cancer in 1925 in Beijing. In his will, he wished to be buried in Nanjing, so his body was reinterred at the current mausoleum on June 1, 1929 (80 years and 2 weeks ago).
Yesterday was my last full Saturday in Nanjing, so I wanted to take full advantage of it. Thus, I set myself three goals: spend an entire day in town, touch the Yangtze River, and visit the Jinghai temple. Thus, I decided to walk an 11.2 mile loop of the north-west part of the city. If you’d like to see my route, go to this link: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2912437. As you can see from the map, I began by walking due west on Beijing Road. I passed the Jiangsu Provincial Government building and the Nanjing Institute of Art before reaching the Qinhuai River. From there, I followed “the mother river of Nanjing” northward. The sun beat down, but the river walk was pleasant (even with no one around). Finally, about 4.5 miles into my trip, I reached the junction of the Qinhuai with the Yangtze. The coast of the Yangtze was lined with private docks – low scale fishermen who were not fishing at all. There was no water access and it was very quiet. Unfortunately, I had to cut in a block because the road on the water’s edge ended. Seeing high rises being constructed all around, I was confident in my location, but as I cut northward again (4.7 miles to 5.4 miles on the map), I realized I was in a completely different part of Nanjing. Gone were the clean streets and fashion stores of downtown. Gone were the VWs and Audis. Here, there were a few taxi cabs, a couple buses, and an otherwise sketchy neighborhood.
Now, I should say here that I never felt in danger while walking this stretch of road. I got plenty of stares and I felt really out of place, but people seemed to go about their normal business. As I said, the street was dirty. A row of really run-down 2-floor concrete shacks lined each side of the street and dingy laundry seemed to be hanging everywhere. The curbs were often filled with murky liquid (it hasn’t rained in a week) and people were sitting around outside cooking food, playing games, and talking with neighbors. I wanted to take a picture, but you couldn’t have paid me to take my camera out of my backpack on that street. It was… a cultural experience.
Finally, I got back on the road following the river. Immediately, the surroundings improved, and normal civilization was back. Go figure! This time, there was a wall between the river and the road, but from what I could tell, the other side was home to some small scale industry, perhaps manufacturing. After a bit, I reached the intersection where I had to turn and I was about to give up, but I saw the next gate was actually open. I neared the gate, thinking I might quickly duck in to take some pictures and duck out. Thankfully, it was a yacht club and restaurant! Imagine that! So sure enough, I got a couple pictures of me touching the Yangtze. The third longest river in the world. One Saturday mission accomplished.
Cutting away from the river, I made my way toward the Jinghai Temple. The Temple was also built in the Ming Dynasty, to recognize and honor the famous Chinese explorer Zheng He. Almost a century before Columbus, Zheng He set out from Nanjing with China’s first naval fleet. He traveled to many adjacent countries via the Philippines and around the Indian Ocean. Most significantly, his friendly tidings toward foreign nations resulted in many international exchanges for China. It was truly a cultural and economic highlight. So it makes sense that a temple would be built to honor such a worthy explorer.
Yet that is not the only history lesson to be learned from the Jinghai Temple. Moving ahead a couple centuries, the British had dominated the world’s waterways and the opium trade was high (pardon the pun) in China. When Chinese leaders decided to ban opium, however, the British resorted to military force to reopen the trade. Finally, after two years of one-sided battle, the British marched into Nanjing in 1842. The Chinese settled for a “treaty:” 2.1 million silver Yuan and Hong Kong. The treaty was signed in the Jinghai Temple and consequently, the temple was also a central point of celebration in 1997 when Hong Kong was returned to China.
All this fun is actually making me much more interested in East Asian history – much more than when I was taking it in AP World History. Mrs. Hoisington would be so proud. Haha.
Well, from there, it was pretty much a straight shot back to the hotel. Straight shot for four miles, of course, but straight none-the-less. Oh yeah, I also came across several consecutive shops that must have been seafood wholesalers. One had a million shellfish. In the next, a half dozen guys were dragging huge ice blocks around. In the third, roughly 20 bins were filled to the brim with water… and EELS! Well, maybe they were water snakes, but they looked like eels to me. Millions of them. Squirming everywhere. It was glorious. I took a few pictures and smiled with one of the guys there.
So, that was Saturday. All three missions were a resounding success. It was a fantastic day.
Today was a normal Sunday. Church was great once again, and I went back to the Confucius Temple market with a bunch from the group. It was a good day.
Anyway, three days of class and an exam are all that’s left. That begins tomorrow! In the next episode, I’ll probably wrap up Nanjing with some general comments and observations. Bye until then!
Tuesday – it seems so long ago – we all went to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. The memorial remembers the 300,000 civilians and soldiers who died when Japanese troops raided the city in late 1937. From mid-December through January 1938, the Japanese killed, looted, and raped anyone they could find. They forced civilians to line up in front of mass graves, where they were shot one after the other. People were killed in every way possible: burned alive, beheaded, stabbed, bayoneted, and others. In the end, over 20,000 cases of rape were reported. It was an inhumane slaughter.
The memorial had two parts. First, guests were led through a comprehensive museum of accounts, artifacts, and descriptions from the massacre. It was amazing to read so many accounts of what happened- from locals who escaped (one was at the bottom of the pile of corpses when they burned them with kerosene to hastily) to Japanese soldiers to international witnesses who set up a refugee zone. Two things particularly stuck out to me in this museum. After reading about the deaths of all the innocent civilians, I can only wonder what the Chinese think of the atomic bomb. We in the United States like to say that it saved lives in the long run, but who were we to destroy the lives of so many innocent people? The other aspect that made an impact was Nanjing’s source of international aid. Within the city, Dr. John Rabe set up a zone for Nanjing refugees. Many fled there, seeking medical and emotional aid. Along with Dr. Rabe, several embassies and the League of Nations also contributed support. It seems like a great and noble effort until one realizes that Dr. Rabe was a German ambassador with Hitler’s support! How could the Germans condemn the Japanese-inflicted genocide immediately before committing their own holocaust! The world is upside down. Wednesday’s shooting at Washington’s Holocaust museum proves that as a fact.
The other part of the memorial was a mass grave. We walked around the circumference of the grave – a “field” of tan, baseball-sized granite stones – before entering a climate controlled room that showed an archeological excavation. Skeletons were mixed and piled close together. Signs showed readers where victims had been bludgeoned, stabbed, and carelessly buried. I will definitely never forget it.
Just as I was feeling bitter towards the Japanese for the atrocity they had committed, I read a quote from someone I cannot remember: “What we must remember is history, not hatred.” Indeed. Like the holocaust, we must never let such suffering fade from our memory, lest history repeat itself.
After finishing at the memorial, I desired to reflect on what I had seen, so I walked to nearby Mochou Lake Park. I wandered amongst the ponds filled with lily pads and along the walkways that surrounded the lake. A dragonboat team was practicing about 70 yards off shore while families and couples meandered about carelessly. It was very peaceful; just what I needed.
On Wednesday and Thursday I wandered aimlessly after class. It was good to get out and see parts of the city with no particular destination! I also studied for my Friday test, which went very well.
On Friday, we went to see the Presidential Palace, originally constructed in the Ming Dynasty but since occupied by many heads of state. The complex included many buildings joined by covered walkways, some ponds and fountains, some gardens, and plenty of rocks. Most notably, the palace was occupied by Dr. Sun Yat-Sen and the Nationalist Party until the Communists moved the capital to Beijing in 1949.
I thought the best part of the palace was a museum to Dr. Sun. It followed the story of his life and how he fought so hard for democracy. He went to school in Hawaii but used Chinese populations in San Francisco, Japan, Taiwan, and China to build a revolution strong enough to overthrow the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Following the successful revolution, he established a constitution and resigned from the presidency to show he was not another power-hungry dictator. Unfortunately, his successor reverted to old ways by 1914, and Dr. Sun was forced to mount another revolution. Unfortunately, the second revolution failed and he spent the rest of his life campaigning for unity between the north and south and for democracy as a whole. He died of liver cancer in 1925 in Beijing. In his will, he wished to be buried in Nanjing, so his body was reinterred at the current mausoleum on June 1, 1929 (80 years and 2 weeks ago).
Yesterday was my last full Saturday in Nanjing, so I wanted to take full advantage of it. Thus, I set myself three goals: spend an entire day in town, touch the Yangtze River, and visit the Jinghai temple. Thus, I decided to walk an 11.2 mile loop of the north-west part of the city. If you’d like to see my route, go to this link: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2912437. As you can see from the map, I began by walking due west on Beijing Road. I passed the Jiangsu Provincial Government building and the Nanjing Institute of Art before reaching the Qinhuai River. From there, I followed “the mother river of Nanjing” northward. The sun beat down, but the river walk was pleasant (even with no one around). Finally, about 4.5 miles into my trip, I reached the junction of the Qinhuai with the Yangtze. The coast of the Yangtze was lined with private docks – low scale fishermen who were not fishing at all. There was no water access and it was very quiet. Unfortunately, I had to cut in a block because the road on the water’s edge ended. Seeing high rises being constructed all around, I was confident in my location, but as I cut northward again (4.7 miles to 5.4 miles on the map), I realized I was in a completely different part of Nanjing. Gone were the clean streets and fashion stores of downtown. Gone were the VWs and Audis. Here, there were a few taxi cabs, a couple buses, and an otherwise sketchy neighborhood.
Now, I should say here that I never felt in danger while walking this stretch of road. I got plenty of stares and I felt really out of place, but people seemed to go about their normal business. As I said, the street was dirty. A row of really run-down 2-floor concrete shacks lined each side of the street and dingy laundry seemed to be hanging everywhere. The curbs were often filled with murky liquid (it hasn’t rained in a week) and people were sitting around outside cooking food, playing games, and talking with neighbors. I wanted to take a picture, but you couldn’t have paid me to take my camera out of my backpack on that street. It was… a cultural experience.
Finally, I got back on the road following the river. Immediately, the surroundings improved, and normal civilization was back. Go figure! This time, there was a wall between the river and the road, but from what I could tell, the other side was home to some small scale industry, perhaps manufacturing. After a bit, I reached the intersection where I had to turn and I was about to give up, but I saw the next gate was actually open. I neared the gate, thinking I might quickly duck in to take some pictures and duck out. Thankfully, it was a yacht club and restaurant! Imagine that! So sure enough, I got a couple pictures of me touching the Yangtze. The third longest river in the world. One Saturday mission accomplished.
Cutting away from the river, I made my way toward the Jinghai Temple. The Temple was also built in the Ming Dynasty, to recognize and honor the famous Chinese explorer Zheng He. Almost a century before Columbus, Zheng He set out from Nanjing with China’s first naval fleet. He traveled to many adjacent countries via the Philippines and around the Indian Ocean. Most significantly, his friendly tidings toward foreign nations resulted in many international exchanges for China. It was truly a cultural and economic highlight. So it makes sense that a temple would be built to honor such a worthy explorer.
Yet that is not the only history lesson to be learned from the Jinghai Temple. Moving ahead a couple centuries, the British had dominated the world’s waterways and the opium trade was high (pardon the pun) in China. When Chinese leaders decided to ban opium, however, the British resorted to military force to reopen the trade. Finally, after two years of one-sided battle, the British marched into Nanjing in 1842. The Chinese settled for a “treaty:” 2.1 million silver Yuan and Hong Kong. The treaty was signed in the Jinghai Temple and consequently, the temple was also a central point of celebration in 1997 when Hong Kong was returned to China.
All this fun is actually making me much more interested in East Asian history – much more than when I was taking it in AP World History. Mrs. Hoisington would be so proud. Haha.
Well, from there, it was pretty much a straight shot back to the hotel. Straight shot for four miles, of course, but straight none-the-less. Oh yeah, I also came across several consecutive shops that must have been seafood wholesalers. One had a million shellfish. In the next, a half dozen guys were dragging huge ice blocks around. In the third, roughly 20 bins were filled to the brim with water… and EELS! Well, maybe they were water snakes, but they looked like eels to me. Millions of them. Squirming everywhere. It was glorious. I took a few pictures and smiled with one of the guys there.
So, that was Saturday. All three missions were a resounding success. It was a fantastic day.
Today was a normal Sunday. Church was great once again, and I went back to the Confucius Temple market with a bunch from the group. It was a good day.
Anyway, three days of class and an exam are all that’s left. That begins tomorrow! In the next episode, I’ll probably wrap up Nanjing with some general comments and observations. Bye until then!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Monday, June 8th 2009, 9:16 PM (Nanjing, China)
Monday, June 8, 2009
Today we were sitting in class as Dr. Brown reviewed the schedule:
-Exam tomorrow on Vehicle Dynamics
-2 classes of Electric Circuits
-Exam Friday on Circuits
-3 classes of Thermodynamics
-Exam next Thursday on Thermo.
The End.
We only have 11 full days left here in Nanjing and 16 before I arrive back in the States. In some ways I still feel like there’s a lot to see, but then again, I’ve done a lot too.
So, when I last posted, we were about to begin vehicle dynamics. It has been a piece of cake! Without being cocky, I expect to get a grade in the mid 90s on tomorrow’s open note test, and I haven’t studied yet.
In the world of extracurricular events, the past few days have been fun, but not very busy! On Thursday, I tested the taxi system for the first time by getting a ride to the Purple Mountains, with a goal of seeing the Observatory there. To gain the necessary elevation, I hopped on the Zijinshan Ropeway. Crossing one peak and climbing another, the ropeway covers 1.4 horizontal miles and climbs over 1300 feet. The ropeway was like a ski lift in that I sat on an old park-style slatted bench with a sketchy “lap” bar (it was really about a foot off my knees and didn’t contain anything). The bench hung from a steel aircraft cable that covered the entire 2.8 mile distance. Even though benches were spaced every 20 ft or so, I only saw 4 people going the other way as I went up. Lots of empty benches and a 100-foot drop made the ride… well… eerie! Once I became acclimated to the height and the peacefulness, however, it was actually very pleasant.
So, I went allllll the way up, looked around, and then came haaalllllf way down, where the Purple Mountain Observatory was located. The observatory, built in the 1920s, welcomed the modern age of astronomy to China. They have apparently made a number of discoveries there, although the facility seems somewhat limited. While visitors were not permitted access to the main telescope or room, there were a few displays and some astronomical tools from the dynastic period. Did you know that this year is the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first telescope? I didn’t either.
After riding back to the bottom, I walked back to the hotel – only 2.5 miles – and called it a day. On Friday, I returned once again to the Confucius Temple shopping area for some more fun wandering and spending. I bought myself a Xun – a Chinese ocarina. It is excellent, but will take some practice to do anything relevant with.
Saturday was also a somewhat unexciting day. We took a day tour to Lishui, where we visited a park and had lunch. The park was somewhat fun. Our tour guide showed us a shallow fish hatchery and told us we could attempt to catch one if we wanted. Since we didn’t, he jumped right in, stalked a couple fish for a few minutes, then grabbed one! It was unbelievable! We applauded as he held his fish up happily. After that, we wandered around the park some more before getting on a boat to see a natural bridge. For anyone unfamiliar with a natural bridge, it occurs when a stream creates sink holes, which in turn erode lower layers of sediment over millions of years. In this case (like the natural bridge in Virginia), the result is a deep ravine with a narrow bridge joining the cliffs. That pretty much summarizes Saturday.
Sunday, Sunday. A small group of us decided to try going to church. It was really quite an amazing experience. Here in China, the Christian church is government run. From what I understand, it’s about 90% legitimate, but there’s supposedly some hogwash too. I don’t know, I haven’t been. That said, we chose to go to Nanjing International Christian Fellowship. NICF is a church for foreigners in Nanjing. To get in, one must have a foreign passport. It’s completely led by volunteers in English and the speaker rotates on a weekly basis. The most surprising and exciting thing about the experience was how international it was. As I’ve said before, Nanjing is 98.5% Chinese. Well, I think the other 1.5% was at this service! I’m sure 25 or 30 countries were represented by the couple hundred in attendance. At the beginning, they asked new attendees to introduce themselves. In addition to us, the other new attendees were from India, Lebanon, the Philappines, and Zimbabwe. The guy who gave the announcements was British and the guy who gave the sermon, African. It was truly awesome to see such a group of people, united by all being foreigners and Christians. There were contemporary songs, communion, a Sunday school orchestra performance of Via Dolorosa, an offering, and the sermon – just like home! In fact, the preacher even gave a lawyer-tax collector joke. I guess some things truly are international!
Anyway, it’s time to wrap this up and get to studying. After tomorrow’s test, we will be going to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, remembering the 1937 rape of Nanking. I perceive it will be a lot like D.C.’s Holocaust Museum, though I haven’t been to that either. Thus, this promises to be interesting, informative, and memorable. Until next time, zai jian!
Today we were sitting in class as Dr. Brown reviewed the schedule:
-Exam tomorrow on Vehicle Dynamics
-2 classes of Electric Circuits
-Exam Friday on Circuits
-3 classes of Thermodynamics
-Exam next Thursday on Thermo.
The End.
We only have 11 full days left here in Nanjing and 16 before I arrive back in the States. In some ways I still feel like there’s a lot to see, but then again, I’ve done a lot too.
So, when I last posted, we were about to begin vehicle dynamics. It has been a piece of cake! Without being cocky, I expect to get a grade in the mid 90s on tomorrow’s open note test, and I haven’t studied yet.
In the world of extracurricular events, the past few days have been fun, but not very busy! On Thursday, I tested the taxi system for the first time by getting a ride to the Purple Mountains, with a goal of seeing the Observatory there. To gain the necessary elevation, I hopped on the Zijinshan Ropeway. Crossing one peak and climbing another, the ropeway covers 1.4 horizontal miles and climbs over 1300 feet. The ropeway was like a ski lift in that I sat on an old park-style slatted bench with a sketchy “lap” bar (it was really about a foot off my knees and didn’t contain anything). The bench hung from a steel aircraft cable that covered the entire 2.8 mile distance. Even though benches were spaced every 20 ft or so, I only saw 4 people going the other way as I went up. Lots of empty benches and a 100-foot drop made the ride… well… eerie! Once I became acclimated to the height and the peacefulness, however, it was actually very pleasant.
So, I went allllll the way up, looked around, and then came haaalllllf way down, where the Purple Mountain Observatory was located. The observatory, built in the 1920s, welcomed the modern age of astronomy to China. They have apparently made a number of discoveries there, although the facility seems somewhat limited. While visitors were not permitted access to the main telescope or room, there were a few displays and some astronomical tools from the dynastic period. Did you know that this year is the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first telescope? I didn’t either.
After riding back to the bottom, I walked back to the hotel – only 2.5 miles – and called it a day. On Friday, I returned once again to the Confucius Temple shopping area for some more fun wandering and spending. I bought myself a Xun – a Chinese ocarina. It is excellent, but will take some practice to do anything relevant with.
Saturday was also a somewhat unexciting day. We took a day tour to Lishui, where we visited a park and had lunch. The park was somewhat fun. Our tour guide showed us a shallow fish hatchery and told us we could attempt to catch one if we wanted. Since we didn’t, he jumped right in, stalked a couple fish for a few minutes, then grabbed one! It was unbelievable! We applauded as he held his fish up happily. After that, we wandered around the park some more before getting on a boat to see a natural bridge. For anyone unfamiliar with a natural bridge, it occurs when a stream creates sink holes, which in turn erode lower layers of sediment over millions of years. In this case (like the natural bridge in Virginia), the result is a deep ravine with a narrow bridge joining the cliffs. That pretty much summarizes Saturday.
Sunday, Sunday. A small group of us decided to try going to church. It was really quite an amazing experience. Here in China, the Christian church is government run. From what I understand, it’s about 90% legitimate, but there’s supposedly some hogwash too. I don’t know, I haven’t been. That said, we chose to go to Nanjing International Christian Fellowship. NICF is a church for foreigners in Nanjing. To get in, one must have a foreign passport. It’s completely led by volunteers in English and the speaker rotates on a weekly basis. The most surprising and exciting thing about the experience was how international it was. As I’ve said before, Nanjing is 98.5% Chinese. Well, I think the other 1.5% was at this service! I’m sure 25 or 30 countries were represented by the couple hundred in attendance. At the beginning, they asked new attendees to introduce themselves. In addition to us, the other new attendees were from India, Lebanon, the Philappines, and Zimbabwe. The guy who gave the announcements was British and the guy who gave the sermon, African. It was truly awesome to see such a group of people, united by all being foreigners and Christians. There were contemporary songs, communion, a Sunday school orchestra performance of Via Dolorosa, an offering, and the sermon – just like home! In fact, the preacher even gave a lawyer-tax collector joke. I guess some things truly are international!
Anyway, it’s time to wrap this up and get to studying. After tomorrow’s test, we will be going to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, remembering the 1937 rape of Nanking. I perceive it will be a lot like D.C.’s Holocaust Museum, though I haven’t been to that either. Thus, this promises to be interesting, informative, and memorable. Until next time, zai jian!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Wednesday, June 3rd 2009, 10:46 PM (Nanjing, China)
Greetings and salutations!
Today, of course, is Wednesday, June 3. A little higher level mathematics will reveal that I have been in China for three weeks and one day and I will return to the United States in exactly three weeks from now. I don’t particularly have much to write about in the way of events, but the majority of this post will discuss interesting tidbits and quirks that I’ve come across in the first half of my trip.
Sunday, we had class. After class, I worked on my paper for a bit, listened to a presentation about innovative construction by the local DOT (some of the most creative bridges I’ve ever seen- and they offered employment too!), went to dinner, and studied for my exam.
Monday – my birthday – I had a difficult time with the exam and spent all afternoon writing my paper. In the evening however, the hosts were sponsoring a farewell banquet for my Traffic professor, who is returning to the States tomorrow. I pretended like it was a birthday banquet. There were 23 courses in all! It was excellent too. Funny thing about banquets in China… they serve wine and beer. Typically, you don’t drink until someone toasts something or someone. Well, plenty of people toasted me. Good thing I brought my water along and the wine was weak!
On Tuesday, I went to class, then wrote my paper and studied for the final exam.
Today, I took my Traffic Engineering final exam (which went really well), then I spent the afternoon relaxing in my room. Exciting? I think so.
Tomorrow is the first day of CE497 – a crash course (pardon the pun) in vehicle dynamics, electric circuits, and thermodynamics. After Traffic, this course promises to be a piece of cake: no paper, no final, 3 noncumulative tests. I’m excited.
So there’s the scoop on the week’s activities, but now for a sort of rundown on some of the observations I’ve made. The order here is in stream-of-consciousness, and I can’t even promise that the following rambling will make any sense at all, so you’re welcome to turn back now, before it’s too late!
1. Music.
I have yet to find a good theatre performance. I saw a poster with two traditional instruments, but I can’t read Chinese, so I took a picture. I just need someone to translate it. That said, I have heard some music. The lady on the boat was playing the pipa. Since then, I’ve crossed paths with a few poor/homeless people playing some amazing music. Of course, being a sucker for awesome traditional music, I’ve tipped them. The first occasion was a man and women performing over the weekend. As far as I can tell based on memory, one was playing a dizi and the other a qinqin. I think. They were very good. The second occasion occurred today, as our group passed a man playing…uh… Well, based on a photograph and some research, I think he was playing a Sanxian with a bow. That’s my best guess anyway. Whatever the case, it was really beautiful sounding!
2. The sidewalks.
All sidewalks here have a row of tiles running their entire length. Each square tile has a two by 6 grid of raised rectangles that run parallel to the sidewalk. At corners, the tile changes to a grid of raised bumps. It took us a while to learn why these are everywhere, but it’s really quite clever. More extra credit to the first person who can come up with the right answer!
3. Street signals.
They all have countdown timers until the next phase. When you’re stopped, a red timer signals when the next green is. A green timer accompanies a green signal to tell when a yellow is coming. Of course, yellows also have a timer of 3 measly seconds! I think this is a great system that should be adopted by the States!
4. Elderly people playing games.
At the nearest street corner in the mid afternoon every day, one can find 40 to 50 people sitting in the shade, four to a table playing mah jong or Chinese chess. I intend to take my new Chinese chess set and take on someone, with no intention of winning. I have a feeling, if I went, sat down, and set up a board, someone would come up and play me. How cool would that be?
5. Bartering.
I’m not good at it, but getting better ;-) It’s everywhere, and I think being foreign helps. Every vendor has an identical calculator. You ask how much it costs (they understand that, haha), and they type in a number. You type a lower number. The process continues until an agreement is reached. It seems to me that they’re pretty quick to lower the price – I almost feel bad that I’m cheating them out of their product, but it’s their system. As an example, the price of something I wanted was 260 Yuan. I countered with 130 (and I should have started lower!). After about 90 seconds, we agreed on 150. That’s the way it goes.
6. Common Foods.
Sure everyone knows about rice and noodles, but having been here three weeks, I’m seeing trends in other food as well. Watermelon is served as dessert for every meal. Fish is never deboned and everything is cooked in oil. Interestingly, a popular banquet food here is crawfish! Having some crawfish boil experience from home, it fell on me to teach some in our group how to eat them. Naturally, they don’t use Cajun spice, but the best ones I’ve had were baked with cheese! Dinner foods (noodles, rice, green beans, dumplings, rolls, etc) are served at breakfast… with hot fruit juice! Finally, napkins are few and far between. I think that’s China’s attempt at being green, but I haven’t verified that theory yet.
7. Construction.
The design-build process for most projects (sky scrapers, bridges, subway, etc) is under five years. Small scale projects such as pedestrian and two lane overpasses are completed within one year. I’m jealous.
Well, that’s it for now. I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head, and I have to get to sleep. In the next installment, I’ll continue the list if I come up with anything else!
Today, of course, is Wednesday, June 3. A little higher level mathematics will reveal that I have been in China for three weeks and one day and I will return to the United States in exactly three weeks from now. I don’t particularly have much to write about in the way of events, but the majority of this post will discuss interesting tidbits and quirks that I’ve come across in the first half of my trip.
Sunday, we had class. After class, I worked on my paper for a bit, listened to a presentation about innovative construction by the local DOT (some of the most creative bridges I’ve ever seen- and they offered employment too!), went to dinner, and studied for my exam.
Monday – my birthday – I had a difficult time with the exam and spent all afternoon writing my paper. In the evening however, the hosts were sponsoring a farewell banquet for my Traffic professor, who is returning to the States tomorrow. I pretended like it was a birthday banquet. There were 23 courses in all! It was excellent too. Funny thing about banquets in China… they serve wine and beer. Typically, you don’t drink until someone toasts something or someone. Well, plenty of people toasted me. Good thing I brought my water along and the wine was weak!
On Tuesday, I went to class, then wrote my paper and studied for the final exam.
Today, I took my Traffic Engineering final exam (which went really well), then I spent the afternoon relaxing in my room. Exciting? I think so.
Tomorrow is the first day of CE497 – a crash course (pardon the pun) in vehicle dynamics, electric circuits, and thermodynamics. After Traffic, this course promises to be a piece of cake: no paper, no final, 3 noncumulative tests. I’m excited.
So there’s the scoop on the week’s activities, but now for a sort of rundown on some of the observations I’ve made. The order here is in stream-of-consciousness, and I can’t even promise that the following rambling will make any sense at all, so you’re welcome to turn back now, before it’s too late!
1. Music.
I have yet to find a good theatre performance. I saw a poster with two traditional instruments, but I can’t read Chinese, so I took a picture. I just need someone to translate it. That said, I have heard some music. The lady on the boat was playing the pipa. Since then, I’ve crossed paths with a few poor/homeless people playing some amazing music. Of course, being a sucker for awesome traditional music, I’ve tipped them. The first occasion was a man and women performing over the weekend. As far as I can tell based on memory, one was playing a dizi and the other a qinqin. I think. They were very good. The second occasion occurred today, as our group passed a man playing…uh… Well, based on a photograph and some research, I think he was playing a Sanxian with a bow. That’s my best guess anyway. Whatever the case, it was really beautiful sounding!
2. The sidewalks.
All sidewalks here have a row of tiles running their entire length. Each square tile has a two by 6 grid of raised rectangles that run parallel to the sidewalk. At corners, the tile changes to a grid of raised bumps. It took us a while to learn why these are everywhere, but it’s really quite clever. More extra credit to the first person who can come up with the right answer!
3. Street signals.
They all have countdown timers until the next phase. When you’re stopped, a red timer signals when the next green is. A green timer accompanies a green signal to tell when a yellow is coming. Of course, yellows also have a timer of 3 measly seconds! I think this is a great system that should be adopted by the States!
4. Elderly people playing games.
At the nearest street corner in the mid afternoon every day, one can find 40 to 50 people sitting in the shade, four to a table playing mah jong or Chinese chess. I intend to take my new Chinese chess set and take on someone, with no intention of winning. I have a feeling, if I went, sat down, and set up a board, someone would come up and play me. How cool would that be?
5. Bartering.
I’m not good at it, but getting better ;-) It’s everywhere, and I think being foreign helps. Every vendor has an identical calculator. You ask how much it costs (they understand that, haha), and they type in a number. You type a lower number. The process continues until an agreement is reached. It seems to me that they’re pretty quick to lower the price – I almost feel bad that I’m cheating them out of their product, but it’s their system. As an example, the price of something I wanted was 260 Yuan. I countered with 130 (and I should have started lower!). After about 90 seconds, we agreed on 150. That’s the way it goes.
6. Common Foods.
Sure everyone knows about rice and noodles, but having been here three weeks, I’m seeing trends in other food as well. Watermelon is served as dessert for every meal. Fish is never deboned and everything is cooked in oil. Interestingly, a popular banquet food here is crawfish! Having some crawfish boil experience from home, it fell on me to teach some in our group how to eat them. Naturally, they don’t use Cajun spice, but the best ones I’ve had were baked with cheese! Dinner foods (noodles, rice, green beans, dumplings, rolls, etc) are served at breakfast… with hot fruit juice! Finally, napkins are few and far between. I think that’s China’s attempt at being green, but I haven’t verified that theory yet.
7. Construction.
The design-build process for most projects (sky scrapers, bridges, subway, etc) is under five years. Small scale projects such as pedestrian and two lane overpasses are completed within one year. I’m jealous.
Well, that’s it for now. I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head, and I have to get to sleep. In the next installment, I’ll continue the list if I come up with anything else!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday, May 31st 2009, 1:48 pm (Nanjing, China)
Greetings once again from Nanjing!
Today is Saturday and I think my last post was Tuesday, so I’m afraid a lot of time has passed. Sorry about that! Nonetheless, there really isn’t too much to write home about. Well… I tend to drag everything out, so we’ll see how this goes. Without further ado I present “This Week.”
So as you recall, I was preparing for our field trip. We (16 students, 2 leaders, 2 adult hosts, 1 Chinese student guide, and 1 driver) piled into the 25-passenger van and headed out of Nanjing at 12:30 pm. The first transportation-related landmark we were to analyze was the beautiful expressway that was intended to blend into the landscape. In addition, we pulled off at a service area so we could marvel at how well it fit into its surroundings. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but the Chinese government is all about “going green” and being more environmentally friendly. While this sentiment is far from reaching all walks of life, it has definitely affected the philosophies of every agency we’ve worked with thus far.
A little later down the road, we stopped at another service area. This time, the focus was different. Instead of being green, we admired the building’s architecture: a near replica of London Bridge. Yes, at a service area. We were shocked. Ten minutes later we continued our transportation journey. Finally, by about 3:30 pm, we arrived at Huaxi (pronounced Hwa-she) Village, the self-proclaimed “best village in China.” While I personally question that statement, I found the village to be an excellent study of appearances. It is the first place in China I’ve seen single family homes, but they were aligned in a perfect grid pattern, each identical to its neighbors. In addition, we drove along a nice, touristy store front, but upon climbing an observation tower, we realized that the stores just hid a water treatment plant. Finally, they took us on a tour of the village greenhouses. It turns out that the quantity of vegetables grown there is insufficient for the village, so the greenhouse is merely kept for tourism purposes.
Oh yeah, did I mention the replica Arc d’Triumph, Sacre Coure, Great Wall, and Tiananmen Square? Hmmm… yeah, I thought it was weird too.
Leaving Huaxi, we backtracked slightly to Jiangyin, where we were spending the night. From an adjacent hill, we looked out over the Jiangyin suspension bridge, the 6th longest suspension span in the world. For comparison, the Golden Gate ranks in at 9th. Unfortunately, we did not cross the bridge since people (our hosts) were trying to get us to dinner. Sometimes I think transportation engineers just don’t understand how amazing such structures are. ;-) Maybe one day they’ll learn.
The following day, we rose bright and early to continue our road trip. Leaving Jiangyin at 8:30, we continued eastward. Our first stop was to visit the Sutong cable stayed bridge, the longest such bridge in the world. Because cable stayed bridges place loading directly on each tower, spans longer than 1 km have never been achieved… until the Sutong. Unfortunately, the smoggy sky made it impossible to see the opposite bank from the exhibition center, and consequently the bridge was partially masked by haze. Even still, it was remarkable to see how ridiculously high the towers stretched. Standing on the bank definitely provided a sense of insignificance. For clear pictures, see Wikipedia or Google. Else, you can e-mail me if you’d like a couple of my own pictures from the bridge.
Looking at a map, you will see that the Sutong Bridge is about three-quarters of the way from Nanjing to Shanghai. Thus, we had a long drive ahead of us once again. It was made even longer by the addition of yet one more stop: the Taizhou Suspension Bridge. Currently, the Taizhou Bridge consists of three half-constructed towers. Seeing a suspension tower rise from the earth adjacent to an impoverished community was a sight to behold – another strange technological façade. Upon the bridge’s completion, however, it will essentially be the world’s first double suspension bridge. Each of the identical main spans will stretch 1000m over the Yangtze with a pivot in the middle. Combined with an opening date planned for 2013, the Chinese are clearly on top of their civil engineering game.
Finally, we drove back via the Runyang Bridge. This bridge also features two spans, joined at the center of the river on a small island. The northern span is cable stayed and the southern span is the fourth longest suspension span in the world. We didn’t stop – just drove over and admired. So, in summary, we saw the current longest cable stayed bridge, the world’s 4th and 6th longest suspension spans, and the construction of the world’s first double suspension span (which will be the longest suspension in the world). It was crazy.
Ah Friday. Dragon Boat Festival. As I quickly found out, celebrations and activities are few and far between, sort of like our Columbus Day in the United States. Honestly, if our professors hadn’t told us it was a national holiday, I would have thought Saturday came a day early this week. Still, I tried to find some sort of fun to take part of. Sure enough, I purchased two zongzi- one was zhu rou (pork) and the other was jujube (Chinese date). Unwrapping the bamboo leaves was a challenge because the rice was so incredibly sticky, but the taste made the struggle well worth it. After eating my zongzi, I walked around Xuanwu Lake, the big lake at the foot of Purple Mountain. There weren’t any festivities, but many families and couples were out enjoying the sunny day. Children played on playgrounds and almost every park bench was taken. I guess it was great to see how the people here enjoy their time off, but it turned out to be quite similar to a holiday in the States.
And now, today. I began today by trying to track down a theatre in the center of town. I’ve been hoping to see some kind of musical performance, but nothing is listed online. Sure enough, I found the theatre, but apparently today was a “Cosplay” event – costumed roleplay. Therefore, every teen around the theatre was dressed in an anime-style costume. It was kind of interesting, but I deemed my search for a performance schedule to be impossible.
Continuing on my way, I went to the Zhonghua Gate. This gate was built in the 1430s as part of the Ming Dynasty city wall. The gate (which resembled a small fortress) has three partitioned courtyards and a sort of bunker area in the front. Each partition had an iron gate that could be dropped down at a moment’s notice to limit invaders. But even with multiple gates and a drawbridge, Zhonghua was where Nanjing fell to the Japanese in 1937. Oops!
While spending time at the gate, two pairs of people decided to begin conversations with me. The first pair was two guys who were about my age. I did not catch their names, so I’ll call them Mark and Robert here. Mark did not speak any English, but Robert said he had visited Boston in 2007, so his English was ok. He wanted to know where I was from and what I was doing. We took a few pictures and communicated as best we could. As we walked, we went into a room that displayed a raid siren. I asked them to explain the sign, but Robert’s English was not good enough. Just then, the second pair of people walked up: a guy and girl who also appeared to be my age. I didn’t catch their names either, so I’ll call them Joe and Lauren. Like Mark, Joe didn’t speak any English and Lauren’s English was very limited… so no one ended up explaining the siren. Oh well.
Anyway, Mark and Robert left and Lauren and Joe followed me to some of the other display rooms. I tried to ask questions about what I saw, but her comprehension – and consequently her responses – were confused and scattered. In spite of this, it was surprising that we were able to communicate using small phrases and words in context. I was impressed at both our diligence and patience in attempting to communicate. Best of all, they seemed to enjoy spending time with me, so we saw a couple more rooms and then I had to continue on.
Leaving the gate, I walked to the nearby Confucius Temple, which I heard is also called Fuzimao Street. You may recall that I have visited there already, but I chose to return to do some more shopping. I was quite successful too! As I was looking for postcards, however, yet another guy said hello to me. He introduced himself in Chinese and then said his English name is Luis. Ok, so I was really quite impressed with Luis’s English speaking. He connected his thoughts well and it seemed his only limitation was vocabulary. Even at that, however, his vocabulary was fairly advanced. Of course, he was totally enthralled to be talking to an American, so we wandered all around the temple for about an hour, talking mainly about differences between American and Chinese students. It was really interesting to hear about America from a Chinese student’s perspective. “I heard Americans…” “I heard students in America …” Most of the things he had heard were right on, too. It was clear he was enthralled by the idea of modernity – a very American idea. He even commented that China was too traditional for his liking. He wanted to know if I had been to Miami and New York. “New York is also called the Big Apple. Do you know why that is? I really like New York. It’s very modern.” I have no idea why NYC is the Big Apple. Is that bad?
He said he hopes to come to America some day after he graduates in accounting, perhaps permanently. I told him not to be so hasty because China has a lot of benefits too. Even though he doesn’t like the Chinese education system, I told him that was the reason why China was moving up in the world and America is not.
Well, I could talk a lot more about our discussion, but this is already an exceedingly long blog post. I can share more later if anyone is interested. So we bid each other good bye and exchanged email addresses. I returned to one last store and actually sat around and “talked” with the family that ran it. By “talk,” I mean that we used a calculator to show each of our ages, and then they shared some seeds with me. For my first test, they were curious if I could use chopsticks, so I picked up a seed on my first try! Whew! My second test was actually eating the seeds. These seeds were quite similar to sunflower seeds: oblong shell with almost no flesh. The coating was very tasty, but I was incompetent at cracking the shells open with my teeth. They could all crack the shells perfectly in half – I mangled six or seven and then gave up. We had a good laugh. At last, I bought what I was looking for and they gave me a bracelet as a gift of friendship. They wished me well, but I think they want me to come back again to say hello. Maybe I’ll master my seed eating skills first!
At long last, I returned to the hotel, wiped from walking about 13 miles in two days after spending about 10 hours driving in the two days before that. What a week! Anyway, I have a test coming up and a paper due Wednesday, so time to get back to work. Thanks for reading and I’ll write again soon!!
Today is Saturday and I think my last post was Tuesday, so I’m afraid a lot of time has passed. Sorry about that! Nonetheless, there really isn’t too much to write home about. Well… I tend to drag everything out, so we’ll see how this goes. Without further ado I present “This Week.”
So as you recall, I was preparing for our field trip. We (16 students, 2 leaders, 2 adult hosts, 1 Chinese student guide, and 1 driver) piled into the 25-passenger van and headed out of Nanjing at 12:30 pm. The first transportation-related landmark we were to analyze was the beautiful expressway that was intended to blend into the landscape. In addition, we pulled off at a service area so we could marvel at how well it fit into its surroundings. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but the Chinese government is all about “going green” and being more environmentally friendly. While this sentiment is far from reaching all walks of life, it has definitely affected the philosophies of every agency we’ve worked with thus far.
A little later down the road, we stopped at another service area. This time, the focus was different. Instead of being green, we admired the building’s architecture: a near replica of London Bridge. Yes, at a service area. We were shocked. Ten minutes later we continued our transportation journey. Finally, by about 3:30 pm, we arrived at Huaxi (pronounced Hwa-she) Village, the self-proclaimed “best village in China.” While I personally question that statement, I found the village to be an excellent study of appearances. It is the first place in China I’ve seen single family homes, but they were aligned in a perfect grid pattern, each identical to its neighbors. In addition, we drove along a nice, touristy store front, but upon climbing an observation tower, we realized that the stores just hid a water treatment plant. Finally, they took us on a tour of the village greenhouses. It turns out that the quantity of vegetables grown there is insufficient for the village, so the greenhouse is merely kept for tourism purposes.
Oh yeah, did I mention the replica Arc d’Triumph, Sacre Coure, Great Wall, and Tiananmen Square? Hmmm… yeah, I thought it was weird too.
Leaving Huaxi, we backtracked slightly to Jiangyin, where we were spending the night. From an adjacent hill, we looked out over the Jiangyin suspension bridge, the 6th longest suspension span in the world. For comparison, the Golden Gate ranks in at 9th. Unfortunately, we did not cross the bridge since people (our hosts) were trying to get us to dinner. Sometimes I think transportation engineers just don’t understand how amazing such structures are. ;-) Maybe one day they’ll learn.
The following day, we rose bright and early to continue our road trip. Leaving Jiangyin at 8:30, we continued eastward. Our first stop was to visit the Sutong cable stayed bridge, the longest such bridge in the world. Because cable stayed bridges place loading directly on each tower, spans longer than 1 km have never been achieved… until the Sutong. Unfortunately, the smoggy sky made it impossible to see the opposite bank from the exhibition center, and consequently the bridge was partially masked by haze. Even still, it was remarkable to see how ridiculously high the towers stretched. Standing on the bank definitely provided a sense of insignificance. For clear pictures, see Wikipedia or Google. Else, you can e-mail me if you’d like a couple of my own pictures from the bridge.
Looking at a map, you will see that the Sutong Bridge is about three-quarters of the way from Nanjing to Shanghai. Thus, we had a long drive ahead of us once again. It was made even longer by the addition of yet one more stop: the Taizhou Suspension Bridge. Currently, the Taizhou Bridge consists of three half-constructed towers. Seeing a suspension tower rise from the earth adjacent to an impoverished community was a sight to behold – another strange technological façade. Upon the bridge’s completion, however, it will essentially be the world’s first double suspension bridge. Each of the identical main spans will stretch 1000m over the Yangtze with a pivot in the middle. Combined with an opening date planned for 2013, the Chinese are clearly on top of their civil engineering game.
Finally, we drove back via the Runyang Bridge. This bridge also features two spans, joined at the center of the river on a small island. The northern span is cable stayed and the southern span is the fourth longest suspension span in the world. We didn’t stop – just drove over and admired. So, in summary, we saw the current longest cable stayed bridge, the world’s 4th and 6th longest suspension spans, and the construction of the world’s first double suspension span (which will be the longest suspension in the world). It was crazy.
Ah Friday. Dragon Boat Festival. As I quickly found out, celebrations and activities are few and far between, sort of like our Columbus Day in the United States. Honestly, if our professors hadn’t told us it was a national holiday, I would have thought Saturday came a day early this week. Still, I tried to find some sort of fun to take part of. Sure enough, I purchased two zongzi- one was zhu rou (pork) and the other was jujube (Chinese date). Unwrapping the bamboo leaves was a challenge because the rice was so incredibly sticky, but the taste made the struggle well worth it. After eating my zongzi, I walked around Xuanwu Lake, the big lake at the foot of Purple Mountain. There weren’t any festivities, but many families and couples were out enjoying the sunny day. Children played on playgrounds and almost every park bench was taken. I guess it was great to see how the people here enjoy their time off, but it turned out to be quite similar to a holiday in the States.
And now, today. I began today by trying to track down a theatre in the center of town. I’ve been hoping to see some kind of musical performance, but nothing is listed online. Sure enough, I found the theatre, but apparently today was a “Cosplay” event – costumed roleplay. Therefore, every teen around the theatre was dressed in an anime-style costume. It was kind of interesting, but I deemed my search for a performance schedule to be impossible.
Continuing on my way, I went to the Zhonghua Gate. This gate was built in the 1430s as part of the Ming Dynasty city wall. The gate (which resembled a small fortress) has three partitioned courtyards and a sort of bunker area in the front. Each partition had an iron gate that could be dropped down at a moment’s notice to limit invaders. But even with multiple gates and a drawbridge, Zhonghua was where Nanjing fell to the Japanese in 1937. Oops!
While spending time at the gate, two pairs of people decided to begin conversations with me. The first pair was two guys who were about my age. I did not catch their names, so I’ll call them Mark and Robert here. Mark did not speak any English, but Robert said he had visited Boston in 2007, so his English was ok. He wanted to know where I was from and what I was doing. We took a few pictures and communicated as best we could. As we walked, we went into a room that displayed a raid siren. I asked them to explain the sign, but Robert’s English was not good enough. Just then, the second pair of people walked up: a guy and girl who also appeared to be my age. I didn’t catch their names either, so I’ll call them Joe and Lauren. Like Mark, Joe didn’t speak any English and Lauren’s English was very limited… so no one ended up explaining the siren. Oh well.
Anyway, Mark and Robert left and Lauren and Joe followed me to some of the other display rooms. I tried to ask questions about what I saw, but her comprehension – and consequently her responses – were confused and scattered. In spite of this, it was surprising that we were able to communicate using small phrases and words in context. I was impressed at both our diligence and patience in attempting to communicate. Best of all, they seemed to enjoy spending time with me, so we saw a couple more rooms and then I had to continue on.
Leaving the gate, I walked to the nearby Confucius Temple, which I heard is also called Fuzimao Street. You may recall that I have visited there already, but I chose to return to do some more shopping. I was quite successful too! As I was looking for postcards, however, yet another guy said hello to me. He introduced himself in Chinese and then said his English name is Luis. Ok, so I was really quite impressed with Luis’s English speaking. He connected his thoughts well and it seemed his only limitation was vocabulary. Even at that, however, his vocabulary was fairly advanced. Of course, he was totally enthralled to be talking to an American, so we wandered all around the temple for about an hour, talking mainly about differences between American and Chinese students. It was really interesting to hear about America from a Chinese student’s perspective. “I heard Americans…” “I heard students in America …” Most of the things he had heard were right on, too. It was clear he was enthralled by the idea of modernity – a very American idea. He even commented that China was too traditional for his liking. He wanted to know if I had been to Miami and New York. “New York is also called the Big Apple. Do you know why that is? I really like New York. It’s very modern.” I have no idea why NYC is the Big Apple. Is that bad?
He said he hopes to come to America some day after he graduates in accounting, perhaps permanently. I told him not to be so hasty because China has a lot of benefits too. Even though he doesn’t like the Chinese education system, I told him that was the reason why China was moving up in the world and America is not.
Well, I could talk a lot more about our discussion, but this is already an exceedingly long blog post. I can share more later if anyone is interested. So we bid each other good bye and exchanged email addresses. I returned to one last store and actually sat around and “talked” with the family that ran it. By “talk,” I mean that we used a calculator to show each of our ages, and then they shared some seeds with me. For my first test, they were curious if I could use chopsticks, so I picked up a seed on my first try! Whew! My second test was actually eating the seeds. These seeds were quite similar to sunflower seeds: oblong shell with almost no flesh. The coating was very tasty, but I was incompetent at cracking the shells open with my teeth. They could all crack the shells perfectly in half – I mangled six or seven and then gave up. We had a good laugh. At last, I bought what I was looking for and they gave me a bracelet as a gift of friendship. They wished me well, but I think they want me to come back again to say hello. Maybe I’ll master my seed eating skills first!
At long last, I returned to the hotel, wiped from walking about 13 miles in two days after spending about 10 hours driving in the two days before that. What a week! Anyway, I have a test coming up and a paper due Wednesday, so time to get back to work. Thanks for reading and I’ll write again soon!!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Tuesday, May 26th 2009, 1:03 pm (Nanjing, China)
Ok, class. I’ve received some questions from you all, and apparently the assignment was harder than I anticipated. That said, you can turn it in for extra credit, but it won’t be graded.
On a more serious note, here it is Tuesday in Nanjing! I’m sad to say that we did not have Memorial Day off. Nor did we celebrate. Nor did we have fireworks. Nor did we go out to eat. In fact, I spent my Memorial Day studying for a test. But hey, this Thursday and Friday we will be celebrating a Chinese National Holiday, the Dragon Boat Festival. Reading up a little ahead of time, the Dragon Boat Festival features boat races to honor the spirit of water dragons, considered to be the most powerful dragons (and they provide water for crops). Moreover, the festival honors a 3rd century BC poet, Qu Yuan, whose counsel was rejected by a king. Qu Yuan threw himself into a river, and the villagers raced their boats around to try to find him before he drowned. Failing to find him, they threw rice into the water to prevent the fish from eating his body (I don’t understand that). To this day, one of the central foods surrounding the festival is zongzi – bamboo leaves wrapped around sticky rice with a sweet or salty filling. I’ve seen these in the grocery store already, and I’m really excited to give them a try this weekend!
This past weekend ended up being somewhat uneventful. On Saturday, we were planning to go to a soccer game, until discovering that the game was actually Sunday. Oops! So instead, we headed south to the Confucius Temple market. Like many touristy areas, there wasn’t really a temple as far as I could tell, but tons and tons of shops selling mostly identical merchandise. You’re supposed to barter for everything, but I didn’t remember that until it was almost too late. Thankfully, I only bought a few things and I intend to return at least once more before the end of the trip. I also had my picture taken with a statue I presumed to be of Confucius. It was a pretty jovial statue, so I gave it a high five.
On Sunday, we took a nice, slow start to the day (i.e. most people were recovering from a fun night out on Saturday) before heading to the 3 pm game at Olympic Stadium. The game was between the Jiangsu Sainty and Chongqing. The general admission tickets were 50 Yuan each, which is about $7. To better cheer for Jiangsu, almost all of us purchased blue Sainty jerseys, at a cost of 60 Yuan ($8.50)! The stadium was pretty cool, except it had an interesting mix of obsolescence and modernisms. A crisp, clear jumbotron displayed the score of the game, yet there was no game clock anywhere! The stadium’s capacity was probably around 50,000, although it was only one-quarter filled. At least there were crazy soccer fans though! A couple people from our group motivated the crazy soccer fans by whooping and hollering before, during, and after the game, so we had quite a fun time. Even better, Jiangsu won by a score of 4-0! The first two goals were scored in the first 15 minutes and the last two were scored in the last 10 minutes. Jiangsu combined good defense with a hail-mary style offense that worked remarkably well. As I said, we all had a great time and really enjoyed seeing the home team pull it out.
The only other item of note right now is that we’re getting ready for our field trip to visit some transportation-sites of interest. We leave tomorrow (Wednesday) just after noon, and we’ll return to Nanjing on Thursday afternoon. Depending how interesting the festival is at that time, I may or may not have the opportunity to post again before Sunday. Zai Jian!
On a more serious note, here it is Tuesday in Nanjing! I’m sad to say that we did not have Memorial Day off. Nor did we celebrate. Nor did we have fireworks. Nor did we go out to eat. In fact, I spent my Memorial Day studying for a test. But hey, this Thursday and Friday we will be celebrating a Chinese National Holiday, the Dragon Boat Festival. Reading up a little ahead of time, the Dragon Boat Festival features boat races to honor the spirit of water dragons, considered to be the most powerful dragons (and they provide water for crops). Moreover, the festival honors a 3rd century BC poet, Qu Yuan, whose counsel was rejected by a king. Qu Yuan threw himself into a river, and the villagers raced their boats around to try to find him before he drowned. Failing to find him, they threw rice into the water to prevent the fish from eating his body (I don’t understand that). To this day, one of the central foods surrounding the festival is zongzi – bamboo leaves wrapped around sticky rice with a sweet or salty filling. I’ve seen these in the grocery store already, and I’m really excited to give them a try this weekend!
This past weekend ended up being somewhat uneventful. On Saturday, we were planning to go to a soccer game, until discovering that the game was actually Sunday. Oops! So instead, we headed south to the Confucius Temple market. Like many touristy areas, there wasn’t really a temple as far as I could tell, but tons and tons of shops selling mostly identical merchandise. You’re supposed to barter for everything, but I didn’t remember that until it was almost too late. Thankfully, I only bought a few things and I intend to return at least once more before the end of the trip. I also had my picture taken with a statue I presumed to be of Confucius. It was a pretty jovial statue, so I gave it a high five.
On Sunday, we took a nice, slow start to the day (i.e. most people were recovering from a fun night out on Saturday) before heading to the 3 pm game at Olympic Stadium. The game was between the Jiangsu Sainty and Chongqing. The general admission tickets were 50 Yuan each, which is about $7. To better cheer for Jiangsu, almost all of us purchased blue Sainty jerseys, at a cost of 60 Yuan ($8.50)! The stadium was pretty cool, except it had an interesting mix of obsolescence and modernisms. A crisp, clear jumbotron displayed the score of the game, yet there was no game clock anywhere! The stadium’s capacity was probably around 50,000, although it was only one-quarter filled. At least there were crazy soccer fans though! A couple people from our group motivated the crazy soccer fans by whooping and hollering before, during, and after the game, so we had quite a fun time. Even better, Jiangsu won by a score of 4-0! The first two goals were scored in the first 15 minutes and the last two were scored in the last 10 minutes. Jiangsu combined good defense with a hail-mary style offense that worked remarkably well. As I said, we all had a great time and really enjoyed seeing the home team pull it out.
The only other item of note right now is that we’re getting ready for our field trip to visit some transportation-sites of interest. We leave tomorrow (Wednesday) just after noon, and we’ll return to Nanjing on Thursday afternoon. Depending how interesting the festival is at that time, I may or may not have the opportunity to post again before Sunday. Zai Jian!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009, 9:24 PM (Nanjing, China)
One week of class down!
So it's Friday evening and here I am writing a blog post. I guess I'll find something to do eventually- I think someone mentioned ping pong.
But before that, it's only right that I should update everyone on the week in Nanjing. We've had 5 classes, the equivalent of about 9 weeks of class during a normal semester. Our first test was Thursday and focused on questions regarding traffic in Nanjing. What is the background growth rate? 10-15%. Would light rail work on Beijing Rd (next to our university) and why? Determine the trip assignment for Hunan Road shopping area. It's actually been very interesting.
Dad will be proud because we briefly touched on Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements. Naturally, I remember writing a mock EIS for scouts... good times, good times. I've also enjoyed class because life in DC and travel to various international cities has given me a great perspective on modes of traffic. Peds, Bikes, subway, busway, bus lanes, light rail, heavy rail, street cars, cable cars, people movers (monorail!) etc etc etc... I wonder if I've seen it all?
Never fear, I have also done other things this week too. Since I don't remember what I discussed in Monday's blog (and blogger is still blocked), I'll just start there. Monday afternoon, we heard from Mr. Wei Xia, Vice Director of Jiangsu's DOT. One notable fact was that Jiangsu has the highest population density of any province in China, and consequently has 60,000 bridges and almost 90,000 miles of roads! In addition, the DOT here has adopted a philosophy that "A driver's mistake should not cost his/her life." I think that's a bold statement that goes beyond roadway design- can technology be developed to make up for stupidity? If so, is that foresight or dumb luck? In addition, can it be done without overdesigning a road or structure? I don't know, but it's an interesting idea.
Tuesday afternoon's guest lecture was by Mr. Huang Kai, Dean of International Students (I think) here at Southeast University. He spoke to economic development in the province, but more interesting was his travel experience. Since he earned his PhD in Connecticut and is a world traveler, I asked him what we should gain most from our trip or what we should tell people at home. In his response, he said that this is a time of globalization. He said to tell people to travel abroad and meet someone from another culture. And most significant to me, he said to come back to China. This made me recall a part of my trip to Ecuador in which the Maestro (construction supervisor) said, “Remember Ecuador. Remember the people, remember the country, come back again.”
So I really got to thinking, what do these two experiences have in common? Why should people in Ecuador and China want us to return? Is it that we Americans pump money into their economies? (well, yes, but bear with me..) Is it that they want us to have pity on their living conditions? Or maybe it’s something more meaningful. Maybe we provide a glimmer of hope that not all foreigners look down on these countries. How cool is that?! Here in Nanjing, the population is 99% Chinese. We have been asked on multiple occasions to be in pictures simply because we’re Americans. People point, stare and laugh at us. They shoot photographs when they think we’re not looking. Why is that?
Well let me examine the corollary. Pick any block of any street in any metropolitan city in the United States. I guarantee that during the busiest part of the day, you could walk down the street and count people of at least three different races. And people think there’s no diversity in the US! Those people should come to China! I went two days without seeing a foreigner as far as I could tell. So, maybe we as travelers do bring money into the economies of countries such as China and Ecuador, but we bring something else too. We bring the hope that there are people around the world who care to learn what life is really like behind the façade of government.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is that governments don’t represent their people very well. Therefore, don’t read FoxNews, BBC, or your favorite newspaper and say, “Oh, the Chinese Communist party just restricted trade with the US; their people must be dumb.” It’s not true. Furthermore, don’t let the French (or anyone else) make judgments about Americans because of Bush, or Obama. How do you accomplish both? Go to China! Go to France! Go somewhere! That’s the only way to do justice to learning about a country.
Whew. That was a long soap box, but I think it was necessary. At any rate, after Tuesday’s talk, Mike and I tried out the city’s bus system by taking a trip to the Yangtze River Bridge. The bridge, with its one mile main span, was the first bridge to cross the Yangtze River and the first double deck bridge in China (if I’m not mistaken). The top deck (4 lanes + 2 sidewalks) stands approximately 200 feet above the water and the second deck (2 railroad tracks) about 120 feet high. In addition to the main span, the bridge has over one mile of approach ramp on each side of the river. Most stunning was the high quantity of traffic on the bridge. Trains ran every couple minutes. The lanes were constantly busy with cars, trucks, and mopeds. Even the pedestrian walkways served as (dangerous) travel lanes for mopeds, bicycles, and pedestrians. It was intense!
On Wednesday, our own Dr. Hummer gave an afternoon presentation on Unconventional Intersections which proved to be quite interesting! I think I’ve become a fan of the Median U-Turn (or Michigan Left Turn). Look it up on Wikipedia! Wednesday evening was devoted to studying, dinner, and studying. Sad!
Thursday afternoon and this afternoon were both very enjoyable. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to visit Nanjing’s Tunnel Management Center. Big room, lots of video camera monitors, people with buttons… you know the drill. Next, we took a quick run through Nanjing’s Urban Planning museum, where they had a 1:850 scale model of the entire city! The model filled up an entire room and the viewing was best from the second floor. In addition, the museum had a video with light display to point out Nanjing’s many highlights on the map. It was really REALLY cool! Finally, we took a boat ride on the mother river of Nanjing (an inlet off of the Yangtze). While on the boat, we enjoyed eating yummy lychee nuts (no one knew what it was… except me. I said, “It’s a lychee!” “A what?” “A lychee!!” Anyway, look it up on Wikipedia if you need to.), bananas, sunflower seeds, and tea (they drink tons of it here- it brings good luck). In the mean time, we listened to someone play the pipa (I had to ask what that was… so look that up on Wikipedia too)! It was really beautiful-sounding and I now want to hear more traditional Chinese music. From what I understand, however, it’s hard to come by since the Cultural Revolution (you may need to look that up on Wikipedia if you’re under 30) did away with a lot of that. ANYWAY, it was a fun afternoon!
Today, we went for a tour of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Mausoleum. Located on Purple Mountain, the mausoleum is located at the top of an epic 400-step staircase. It’s really interesting how Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (yeah, look him up on Wikipedia too) is revered like George Washington is in the States. Of course, the strange thing is that the Nationalist party he established in 1912 was the party overthrown by the Communists in 1949. Nonetheless, he is revered. His mausoleum was decorated in simple blue and white (Nationalist colors), and his coffin was carved in his likeness out of granite. It was really quite spectacular!
So, I suppose that’s about all for now. Tomorrow, we’re going to be soccer hooligans for the afternoon. I’ve never been to a soccer game as spectator before, but the game tomorrow is between the Jiangsu Sainty (Nanjing’s team; see Wikipedia) and Chongqing Lifan. The 3 pm game will be held at the Nanjing Olympic Stadium, on the southern side of town. I understand the Sainty is pretty bad, but hopefully it will be fun all the same. I’m interested to see what stadium food is like here in China. My guess is noodles and corn on the cob. Man, they love some corn on the cob on the streets. I haven’t had any yet, but tomorrow might be the day.
Next anticipated post: Monday or Tuesday.
Homework: Before next class (next post), look up the following terms on Wikipedia:
-Median U-turn
-lychee
-pipa
-Cultural Revolution
-Dr. Sun Yat-Sen
-Jiangsu Sainty
So it's Friday evening and here I am writing a blog post. I guess I'll find something to do eventually- I think someone mentioned ping pong.
But before that, it's only right that I should update everyone on the week in Nanjing. We've had 5 classes, the equivalent of about 9 weeks of class during a normal semester. Our first test was Thursday and focused on questions regarding traffic in Nanjing. What is the background growth rate? 10-15%. Would light rail work on Beijing Rd (next to our university) and why? Determine the trip assignment for Hunan Road shopping area. It's actually been very interesting.
Dad will be proud because we briefly touched on Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements. Naturally, I remember writing a mock EIS for scouts... good times, good times. I've also enjoyed class because life in DC and travel to various international cities has given me a great perspective on modes of traffic. Peds, Bikes, subway, busway, bus lanes, light rail, heavy rail, street cars, cable cars, people movers (monorail!) etc etc etc... I wonder if I've seen it all?
Never fear, I have also done other things this week too. Since I don't remember what I discussed in Monday's blog (and blogger is still blocked), I'll just start there. Monday afternoon, we heard from Mr. Wei Xia, Vice Director of Jiangsu's DOT. One notable fact was that Jiangsu has the highest population density of any province in China, and consequently has 60,000 bridges and almost 90,000 miles of roads! In addition, the DOT here has adopted a philosophy that "A driver's mistake should not cost his/her life." I think that's a bold statement that goes beyond roadway design- can technology be developed to make up for stupidity? If so, is that foresight or dumb luck? In addition, can it be done without overdesigning a road or structure? I don't know, but it's an interesting idea.
Tuesday afternoon's guest lecture was by Mr. Huang Kai, Dean of International Students (I think) here at Southeast University. He spoke to economic development in the province, but more interesting was his travel experience. Since he earned his PhD in Connecticut and is a world traveler, I asked him what we should gain most from our trip or what we should tell people at home. In his response, he said that this is a time of globalization. He said to tell people to travel abroad and meet someone from another culture. And most significant to me, he said to come back to China. This made me recall a part of my trip to Ecuador in which the Maestro (construction supervisor) said, “Remember Ecuador. Remember the people, remember the country, come back again.”
So I really got to thinking, what do these two experiences have in common? Why should people in Ecuador and China want us to return? Is it that we Americans pump money into their economies? (well, yes, but bear with me..) Is it that they want us to have pity on their living conditions? Or maybe it’s something more meaningful. Maybe we provide a glimmer of hope that not all foreigners look down on these countries. How cool is that?! Here in Nanjing, the population is 99% Chinese. We have been asked on multiple occasions to be in pictures simply because we’re Americans. People point, stare and laugh at us. They shoot photographs when they think we’re not looking. Why is that?
Well let me examine the corollary. Pick any block of any street in any metropolitan city in the United States. I guarantee that during the busiest part of the day, you could walk down the street and count people of at least three different races. And people think there’s no diversity in the US! Those people should come to China! I went two days without seeing a foreigner as far as I could tell. So, maybe we as travelers do bring money into the economies of countries such as China and Ecuador, but we bring something else too. We bring the hope that there are people around the world who care to learn what life is really like behind the façade of government.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is that governments don’t represent their people very well. Therefore, don’t read FoxNews, BBC, or your favorite newspaper and say, “Oh, the Chinese Communist party just restricted trade with the US; their people must be dumb.” It’s not true. Furthermore, don’t let the French (or anyone else) make judgments about Americans because of Bush, or Obama. How do you accomplish both? Go to China! Go to France! Go somewhere! That’s the only way to do justice to learning about a country.
Whew. That was a long soap box, but I think it was necessary. At any rate, after Tuesday’s talk, Mike and I tried out the city’s bus system by taking a trip to the Yangtze River Bridge. The bridge, with its one mile main span, was the first bridge to cross the Yangtze River and the first double deck bridge in China (if I’m not mistaken). The top deck (4 lanes + 2 sidewalks) stands approximately 200 feet above the water and the second deck (2 railroad tracks) about 120 feet high. In addition to the main span, the bridge has over one mile of approach ramp on each side of the river. Most stunning was the high quantity of traffic on the bridge. Trains ran every couple minutes. The lanes were constantly busy with cars, trucks, and mopeds. Even the pedestrian walkways served as (dangerous) travel lanes for mopeds, bicycles, and pedestrians. It was intense!
On Wednesday, our own Dr. Hummer gave an afternoon presentation on Unconventional Intersections which proved to be quite interesting! I think I’ve become a fan of the Median U-Turn (or Michigan Left Turn). Look it up on Wikipedia! Wednesday evening was devoted to studying, dinner, and studying. Sad!
Thursday afternoon and this afternoon were both very enjoyable. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to visit Nanjing’s Tunnel Management Center. Big room, lots of video camera monitors, people with buttons… you know the drill. Next, we took a quick run through Nanjing’s Urban Planning museum, where they had a 1:850 scale model of the entire city! The model filled up an entire room and the viewing was best from the second floor. In addition, the museum had a video with light display to point out Nanjing’s many highlights on the map. It was really REALLY cool! Finally, we took a boat ride on the mother river of Nanjing (an inlet off of the Yangtze). While on the boat, we enjoyed eating yummy lychee nuts (no one knew what it was… except me. I said, “It’s a lychee!” “A what?” “A lychee!!” Anyway, look it up on Wikipedia if you need to.), bananas, sunflower seeds, and tea (they drink tons of it here- it brings good luck). In the mean time, we listened to someone play the pipa (I had to ask what that was… so look that up on Wikipedia too)! It was really beautiful-sounding and I now want to hear more traditional Chinese music. From what I understand, however, it’s hard to come by since the Cultural Revolution (you may need to look that up on Wikipedia if you’re under 30) did away with a lot of that. ANYWAY, it was a fun afternoon!
Today, we went for a tour of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Mausoleum. Located on Purple Mountain, the mausoleum is located at the top of an epic 400-step staircase. It’s really interesting how Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (yeah, look him up on Wikipedia too) is revered like George Washington is in the States. Of course, the strange thing is that the Nationalist party he established in 1912 was the party overthrown by the Communists in 1949. Nonetheless, he is revered. His mausoleum was decorated in simple blue and white (Nationalist colors), and his coffin was carved in his likeness out of granite. It was really quite spectacular!
So, I suppose that’s about all for now. Tomorrow, we’re going to be soccer hooligans for the afternoon. I’ve never been to a soccer game as spectator before, but the game tomorrow is between the Jiangsu Sainty (Nanjing’s team; see Wikipedia) and Chongqing Lifan. The 3 pm game will be held at the Nanjing Olympic Stadium, on the southern side of town. I understand the Sainty is pretty bad, but hopefully it will be fun all the same. I’m interested to see what stadium food is like here in China. My guess is noodles and corn on the cob. Man, they love some corn on the cob on the streets. I haven’t had any yet, but tomorrow might be the day.
Next anticipated post: Monday or Tuesday.
Homework: Before next class (next post), look up the following terms on Wikipedia:
-Median U-turn
-lychee
-pipa
-Cultural Revolution
-Dr. Sun Yat-Sen
-Jiangsu Sainty
Monday, May 18, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009, 9:00 pm (China)
Wow, almost Tuesday. I've been in this country for one week and it feels like it's been a year. Thankfully, Vienna was the same way. I guess there's a certain period of adjustment for these kind of trips that makes the first week seem like an eternity. I haven't even really done anything yet! Here's hoping each passing day is filled with more excitement and more notable experiences!
Today was pretty good. Apparently, we're taking the class (Traffic Engineering) with about ten or twelve Chinese students. Although they must have known what they were getting into, I feel bad for them- their understanding of English is good but not fluent by any means, so their understanding of class discussion is slow. In addition, there's a clear difference in standard of living. We all had laptops. None of them do. As an introduction, we were all asked to stand, state our hometown (yeah nation's capital REPRESENT!), and say what mode of transportation we use. Of course, we all have cars. They all have bikes. That made me feel kind of awkward. I don't know if I was ashamed or embarrassed or what, but definitely awkward. So since our notes are on the computer, Dr. Hummer asked us to intersperse and pair up with the Chinese students. My partner (whose full name was really long, but told me to call him Yuan) is really nice, but he had difficulty grasping what we discussed. Nonetheless, class went well and hopefully three hours of traffic every day won't be a drag.
After another *lovely* cafeteria lunch, we returned to the hotel for some relaxing before our guest speaker. The guest speaker was Mr. Wei Xia (pronounced "Mr. Sha Vey"), the vice director of Jiangsu province's DOT. The presentation was also given to a lot of Chinese students who I perceived were graduate students in their School of Transportation. Well, it was a cultural experience for sure. There were two simultaneous powerpoints: one in English and one in Chinese. Mr. Wei gave the presentation sentence by sentence in Chinese, pausing so his assistant could translate into English. It was interesting to hear their innovations in highway design, but the 2-hour lecture was pretty long for most of us!
So those are the highlights from today. Dinner was at a somewhat western restaurant, but I had chicken curry. And before anyone accuses me of eating non Chinese food- have no fear, I couldn't taste it anyway. Stupid cold. Oh yeah, don't worry about swine flu either, because my temperature is still 36.8!
That's all for now. It's only been a day since my last post, but the words just kind of came out, so why not have another one? I'm sure I'll post again soon! Bye for now!
Today was pretty good. Apparently, we're taking the class (Traffic Engineering) with about ten or twelve Chinese students. Although they must have known what they were getting into, I feel bad for them- their understanding of English is good but not fluent by any means, so their understanding of class discussion is slow. In addition, there's a clear difference in standard of living. We all had laptops. None of them do. As an introduction, we were all asked to stand, state our hometown (yeah nation's capital REPRESENT!), and say what mode of transportation we use. Of course, we all have cars. They all have bikes. That made me feel kind of awkward. I don't know if I was ashamed or embarrassed or what, but definitely awkward. So since our notes are on the computer, Dr. Hummer asked us to intersperse and pair up with the Chinese students. My partner (whose full name was really long, but told me to call him Yuan) is really nice, but he had difficulty grasping what we discussed. Nonetheless, class went well and hopefully three hours of traffic every day won't be a drag.
After another *lovely* cafeteria lunch, we returned to the hotel for some relaxing before our guest speaker. The guest speaker was Mr. Wei Xia (pronounced "Mr. Sha Vey"), the vice director of Jiangsu province's DOT. The presentation was also given to a lot of Chinese students who I perceived were graduate students in their School of Transportation. Well, it was a cultural experience for sure. There were two simultaneous powerpoints: one in English and one in Chinese. Mr. Wei gave the presentation sentence by sentence in Chinese, pausing so his assistant could translate into English. It was interesting to hear their innovations in highway design, but the 2-hour lecture was pretty long for most of us!
So those are the highlights from today. Dinner was at a somewhat western restaurant, but I had chicken curry. And before anyone accuses me of eating non Chinese food- have no fear, I couldn't taste it anyway. Stupid cold. Oh yeah, don't worry about swine flu either, because my temperature is still 36.8!
That's all for now. It's only been a day since my last post, but the words just kind of came out, so why not have another one? I'm sure I'll post again soon! Bye for now!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009, 5:00 pm (China)
Greetings family and friends across the world! Today’s blog is coming from the 11th floor of the Liu Yuan Hotel in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. It has been an eventful couple of days here in Nanjing as we have settled ourselves in and are preparing to begin class tomorrow.
On a government front, it has been very interesting. The day after posting my last blog, blogger was censored! I clicked on my bookmark and a blank page comes up. No text. No explanation. Just the browser’s telltale statement, “Done.” Youtube is the same way. On that note, I will be posting here via my girlfriend, who has excitedly volunteered to login and post my stories on my behalf. Thanks Kalli!
The other wonderful government-related item of the past few days is that Jiangsu province has reported its first confirmed case of Swine Flu. In accordance with provincial decree, we – dirty Americans – are required to take our temperatures every day until Tuesday and inform them if anyone is over 37.5 degrees Celsius. Yesterday afternoon, I caught a cold (ugh!), but thankfully my temperature reads a cool 36.8, 0.2 below normal body temperature. Nasal decongestants are working wonders too!
So enough about that. Let’s talk Nanjing. Arriving in Nanjing Thursday afternoon, I was immediately struck by two things. First, the city is very green. No, I’m not talking about recycling or clean diesel buses, but rather the shear quantity of trees that line every street in the city. The trees appear to be in the maple family, have solid trunks, and branches that reach out at 90 degree angles at about 7 feet high. If you made a strong-man pose with your fists angled outward, you would get a good idea what these trees look like. It’s very pretty. The other thing that struck me was the quantity of smog. At no time since arriving on Thursday have I seen a blue sky. The sky has been cloudy most of the time, but even with today’s “sunny” weather, the sky is gray and visibility is limited to 5 miles or so. It’s not pretty. If it doesn’t clear up at all, I may need to start looking at pictures of blue skies and puffy white clouds so I don’t forget what they look like!
The people here are indeed very nice. Thursday we had dinner with our host and student guides and Friday, they showed us around campus. They even put up signs all over campus and in the hotel reading, “We welcome the faculty and students of NCSU for civil engineering study abroad.” The warm welcome was very nice and helped us to feel right at home.
Since our meals in Shanghai, the food has improved drastically (or maybe we’re becoming accustomed to it)! We have had a lot more dishes that Americans would think of as Chinese- chicken or beef with noodles, sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, egg drop soup, etc. Friday, we were on our own for dinner (the welcome banquet was delayed as part of the swine flu regulations), so many of us walked around looking for food together. Sadly, most of the group needed a break from Chinese food and stopped at KFC. Six of us, however, stayed the course and ate next door at a Chinese chain restaurant. I had spicy noodles and they were exceedingly good. I will definitely be returning there!
On the topic of food, my eating schedule looks like this: Breakfasts are provided by the hotel – buffet style with hot juice, toast, dumplings, noodles, cooked vegetables, and other apparent leftovers. Lunches will be in the school cafeteria as long as we can stand it. Imagine the quality of cafeteria food in the US with the menu choices of China and you understand how bad that could turn out! Finally, dinners will be whatever is convenient when evening rolls around. I assume Chinese, but that may not last too long.
So far, we have not done too much in Nanjing. Friday was spent touring the main and new campus. On Saturday, we were given a really broad tour of the city by bus. We drove to a number of sites, but due to the rain, we chose to stay on the bus. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a grocery store. That was pretty exciting. I noticed more American brands such as Oreo, Chips Ahoy, and Coca Cola but there were plenty of unfamiliar products too. One could buy fresh squid and eel in addition to a myriad exotic fruits and packaged goods. Employees were all over the store giving out free samples and talking over PA systems to convince shoppers how excellent the products were. In a promotion area, they were featuring Oreo wafers. Adjacent to them were some snack-sized yellow, white, and tan pouches. All the writing was in Chinese, but I decided to be adventurous. Thus, I picked up a yellow pouch and went to pay for that, a Fanta, and some chocolate-filled Koalas (lol- very yummy!). Once back on the bus, I opened my yellow pouch to determine what was inside. To my surprise, I found it filled with green, flat, leathery seeds. I bit into one and it was immediately apparent that I could not chew through the skin, so I split it in half with my hands. I asked our guide what it was and she said (after looking in an English-Chinese dictionary) it was a bean. Upon asking if I had to cook them, she said, “Yes. Fried.” We all burst out laughing. Sadly, I have no access to a pan and oil, so it looks like my leathery, tasteless beans are going to go to waste. No worries. I had fun.
That evening, I hung out with one of our guides, Jun. He bought me a Chinese Chess set as a gift and taught me how to play. It’s actually somewhat different than traditional chess, and it’s really fun! Afterward, we went to dinner in a sketchy hole-in-the-wall restaurant that a lot of the students like. Yeah, it was sketchy and somewhat unsanitary. I don’t know if I’ll do that again, but the noodles were pretty good.
Today, seven or eight of us finally branched out a bit by going to the Hongshan Forest Zoo. To get there, we walked to the Metro and rode four stops. The single Metro line here was completed only a couple years ago and a second line is in progress. To enter the Metro, the rider purchased a plastic chip from an automated kiosk by selecting their destination stop and inserting the appropriate amount (either two or four Yuan ~ $0.25-$0.50). Then, the rider passed through the turnstiles by holding the (apparently) magnetic chip against a sensor. To exit the Metro, the rider would insert the chip into an electromagnetic slot. It was really cool.
The zoo itself had benefits and drawbacks. It was surprisingly big and there was plenty of shade and interesting terrain to climb. The animals were also quite cool: three pandas, some Bengal tigers, ostriches, emus, peacocks, elephants, and a variety of others too. Unfortunately, however, we all realized that these animals were not being kept in the best condition. Water areas were very unclean. Plastic litter was in some animals’ cages. Most disappointing, however, was that most of the animals were kept in very small areas. As an example, the tigers (separated from each other) were each limited to an area less than the size of a hotel room. The poor gray wolf lay in its cage with significant chunks of its hair falling out. Even the birds were limited in their range of flight. Perhaps this was done to ensure guests would get to see the animals, or maybe there just wasn’t enough money to make larger cages, but either way, these cramped conditions were no way to house animals.
In any event, we had a good time in spite of becoming slightly depressed. Riding the Metro and walking the streets were fun, and I’m excited to do this more over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, tomorrow, Monday, is the first day of class. Class starts at 8 am and lasts three to three and a half hours. In addition, we will also have a guest lecturer tomorrow afternoon- Mr. Xia Wei, Vice Director of the Jiangsu DOT Highway Bureau, will be talking about Highway Construction in Jiangsu Province. Doesn’t that sound like fun?
On a government front, it has been very interesting. The day after posting my last blog, blogger was censored! I clicked on my bookmark and a blank page comes up. No text. No explanation. Just the browser’s telltale statement, “Done.” Youtube is the same way. On that note, I will be posting here via my girlfriend, who has excitedly volunteered to login and post my stories on my behalf. Thanks Kalli!
The other wonderful government-related item of the past few days is that Jiangsu province has reported its first confirmed case of Swine Flu. In accordance with provincial decree, we – dirty Americans – are required to take our temperatures every day until Tuesday and inform them if anyone is over 37.5 degrees Celsius. Yesterday afternoon, I caught a cold (ugh!), but thankfully my temperature reads a cool 36.8, 0.2 below normal body temperature. Nasal decongestants are working wonders too!
So enough about that. Let’s talk Nanjing. Arriving in Nanjing Thursday afternoon, I was immediately struck by two things. First, the city is very green. No, I’m not talking about recycling or clean diesel buses, but rather the shear quantity of trees that line every street in the city. The trees appear to be in the maple family, have solid trunks, and branches that reach out at 90 degree angles at about 7 feet high. If you made a strong-man pose with your fists angled outward, you would get a good idea what these trees look like. It’s very pretty. The other thing that struck me was the quantity of smog. At no time since arriving on Thursday have I seen a blue sky. The sky has been cloudy most of the time, but even with today’s “sunny” weather, the sky is gray and visibility is limited to 5 miles or so. It’s not pretty. If it doesn’t clear up at all, I may need to start looking at pictures of blue skies and puffy white clouds so I don’t forget what they look like!
The people here are indeed very nice. Thursday we had dinner with our host and student guides and Friday, they showed us around campus. They even put up signs all over campus and in the hotel reading, “We welcome the faculty and students of NCSU for civil engineering study abroad.” The warm welcome was very nice and helped us to feel right at home.
Since our meals in Shanghai, the food has improved drastically (or maybe we’re becoming accustomed to it)! We have had a lot more dishes that Americans would think of as Chinese- chicken or beef with noodles, sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, egg drop soup, etc. Friday, we were on our own for dinner (the welcome banquet was delayed as part of the swine flu regulations), so many of us walked around looking for food together. Sadly, most of the group needed a break from Chinese food and stopped at KFC. Six of us, however, stayed the course and ate next door at a Chinese chain restaurant. I had spicy noodles and they were exceedingly good. I will definitely be returning there!
On the topic of food, my eating schedule looks like this: Breakfasts are provided by the hotel – buffet style with hot juice, toast, dumplings, noodles, cooked vegetables, and other apparent leftovers. Lunches will be in the school cafeteria as long as we can stand it. Imagine the quality of cafeteria food in the US with the menu choices of China and you understand how bad that could turn out! Finally, dinners will be whatever is convenient when evening rolls around. I assume Chinese, but that may not last too long.
So far, we have not done too much in Nanjing. Friday was spent touring the main and new campus. On Saturday, we were given a really broad tour of the city by bus. We drove to a number of sites, but due to the rain, we chose to stay on the bus. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a grocery store. That was pretty exciting. I noticed more American brands such as Oreo, Chips Ahoy, and Coca Cola but there were plenty of unfamiliar products too. One could buy fresh squid and eel in addition to a myriad exotic fruits and packaged goods. Employees were all over the store giving out free samples and talking over PA systems to convince shoppers how excellent the products were. In a promotion area, they were featuring Oreo wafers. Adjacent to them were some snack-sized yellow, white, and tan pouches. All the writing was in Chinese, but I decided to be adventurous. Thus, I picked up a yellow pouch and went to pay for that, a Fanta, and some chocolate-filled Koalas (lol- very yummy!). Once back on the bus, I opened my yellow pouch to determine what was inside. To my surprise, I found it filled with green, flat, leathery seeds. I bit into one and it was immediately apparent that I could not chew through the skin, so I split it in half with my hands. I asked our guide what it was and she said (after looking in an English-Chinese dictionary) it was a bean. Upon asking if I had to cook them, she said, “Yes. Fried.” We all burst out laughing. Sadly, I have no access to a pan and oil, so it looks like my leathery, tasteless beans are going to go to waste. No worries. I had fun.
That evening, I hung out with one of our guides, Jun. He bought me a Chinese Chess set as a gift and taught me how to play. It’s actually somewhat different than traditional chess, and it’s really fun! Afterward, we went to dinner in a sketchy hole-in-the-wall restaurant that a lot of the students like. Yeah, it was sketchy and somewhat unsanitary. I don’t know if I’ll do that again, but the noodles were pretty good.
Today, seven or eight of us finally branched out a bit by going to the Hongshan Forest Zoo. To get there, we walked to the Metro and rode four stops. The single Metro line here was completed only a couple years ago and a second line is in progress. To enter the Metro, the rider purchased a plastic chip from an automated kiosk by selecting their destination stop and inserting the appropriate amount (either two or four Yuan ~ $0.25-$0.50). Then, the rider passed through the turnstiles by holding the (apparently) magnetic chip against a sensor. To exit the Metro, the rider would insert the chip into an electromagnetic slot. It was really cool.
The zoo itself had benefits and drawbacks. It was surprisingly big and there was plenty of shade and interesting terrain to climb. The animals were also quite cool: three pandas, some Bengal tigers, ostriches, emus, peacocks, elephants, and a variety of others too. Unfortunately, however, we all realized that these animals were not being kept in the best condition. Water areas were very unclean. Plastic litter was in some animals’ cages. Most disappointing, however, was that most of the animals were kept in very small areas. As an example, the tigers (separated from each other) were each limited to an area less than the size of a hotel room. The poor gray wolf lay in its cage with significant chunks of its hair falling out. Even the birds were limited in their range of flight. Perhaps this was done to ensure guests would get to see the animals, or maybe there just wasn’t enough money to make larger cages, but either way, these cramped conditions were no way to house animals.
In any event, we had a good time in spite of becoming slightly depressed. Riding the Metro and walking the streets were fun, and I’m excited to do this more over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, tomorrow, Monday, is the first day of class. Class starts at 8 am and lasts three to three and a half hours. In addition, we will also have a guest lecturer tomorrow afternoon- Mr. Xia Wei, Vice Director of the Jiangsu DOT Highway Bureau, will be talking about Highway Construction in Jiangsu Province. Doesn’t that sound like fun?
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Ni Hao!
As I write this, I am on a bus heading from Shanghai to Nanjing. The trip will take us 4 hours, so I figured I’d be productive by getting some writing in. So let me fill you in on the trip so far.
*dreamy flashback sequence*
It all began dark and early Monday morning when Kalli and Mrs. Hulse took me to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. I entered terminal 2 at about 4:45 am with a few mini-bagels in my pocket and two stuffed bags ready to embark. After checking in, I headed to the gate, where I began to meet my fellow travelers. A couple of us played cards and I thought about how crazy it was that I was going to China! By 6 am, we boarded our flight to Chicago, and we were off. I was out like a light.
In Chicago, we had an awesome 3 hour layover (sarcasm intended). We sat around over breakfast and talked about assorted stuff. More cards. More anticipation. Finally, at 11:30 central time, we took off from Chicago on a Boeing 747-400. The pilot announced that we would be taking a polar route- 300 miles from the North Pole, down through Russia and Mongolia, then finally through China to Shanghai. Unfortunately, our group was scattered around the plane, so I did not really talk to anyone the entire trip. Instead, I took a Tylenol pm and was out for the count. 6 hours later, I finally came around, but we were only half way there! 13 hours and a half was a REALLY long time to be on the plane, but frequent snoozing helped pass the time.
So finally (after another couple hours of napping), we landed at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport! Even though the sun had never set, the local time was 1:30 pm Tuesday. Pulling into the gate, the pilot announced that quarantine officials had to take care of some business before we could disembark. Soon, men in Tyvek suits, goggles, and facemasks boarded the plane with their handheld laser thermal imaging units. They approached every person, pointed the handheld at their forehead, and took a reading. Thankfully everyone in our group passed the thermal reading even though one person was held because he checked “cough” on a swine flu symptoms form… he was soon released.
After clearing customs, we met our tour guide, loaded onto a bus, and headed into the city. The weather was in the low 60s, and even with the heavy smog, it was still cloudy and threatening rain. We went to dinner in an ornately decorated boat on the Huangpu River.
I suppose I will interrupt my story here to talk about food. Our four major meals in Shanghai were all really similar. We would arrive and sit down at two family style tables. In the center of each table was a large, circular, glass turntable. From out of nowhere, waiters and waitresses would bring all manner of plates and dishes of a wide variety of food. Vegetables, fish, chicken, bean curd (tofu), soup… and mystery substances. I suppose about one-third of the food I have consumed I haven’t been able to identify conclusively. Most of the food has tasted good, but there have definitely been dishes difficult to stomach too. Thankfully, since each meal has been family-style (lots of dishes spread around), I have probably already consumed over 50 different dishes. A lot of it has been fried, a few things served with head attached (fish, chicken), and there has been plenty of rice, eggs, and dumplings as well. So, because there has been sooo much food already, it will be difficult for me to identify particular items. As the trip continues, however, I will “identify” and describe a few specific foods that I really appreciate… or not.
And now, we return to our intrepid traveler… After dinner, we headed to a river boat cruise. Shanghai- a gray and seemingly drab city – came to life at sunset. All the sky scrapers had elaborate neon lights and I felt that we were taking a cruise around Manhattan! It was really a spectacular 30 minute ride, except we were all extremely jet-lagged. Thankfully, my pictures have and will continue to remind me of our boat around Shanghai. Finally, we took the bus to the Shanghai Swan Hotel. It was 9 pm (9 am EDT), but it felt like 4 am. I was soon asleep.
Yesterday, my roommate Kevin and I found ourselves wide awake at 5 am, ready to start the day. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel and meandered around until meeting the group at 8:30. To begin, we went to the Shanghai Museum. This museum featured paintings, calligraphy, jade sculptures, ceramics, and currency from the area’s history. I was particularly fond of the calligraphy, which was extremely artistic. Too bad I can’t read any of it!
After the museum, we visited Shanghai’s Pudong TV and Radio Tower. The tower resembles a spaceship with a tripod base and a pair of giant purple spheres. The tower is comparable to the CN tower in many ways: similar height, awesome glass floor, lots of tourists. It was awesome. I realized I’m doing pretty well on towers. I’ve been up the Seattle Space Needle, CN tower, Washington Monument, Eiffel Tower, and now the Pudong TV tower.
Following the tower, we grabbed lunch and went to some ancient gardens and a market. The gardens were peaceful, but we somewhat rushed through them. In the adjacent market, we quickly learned that Shanghai is known for peddlers selling fake Rolexes and other cheap goods. They were everywhere… and I guess we kind of stuck out in a crowd of Asians. I saw a couple things I really wanted, but since bartering was the name of the game and lunch was starting to hit me pretty hard, I passed up on shopping. I hope I didn’t miss my best shopping opportunity for the trip! *sigh*
From the market, we went to dinner, where I poked around at some food and wasn’t feeling too adventurous. Finally, we ended the day by going to see an acrobat show – Cirque du Soleil style. It was amazing! Nonetheless, I was exhausted so our return to the hotel brought some much-needed relaxation.
This morning, we checked out of the Swan Hotel and went for some shopping on Nanjing Road. Nanjing Road reminded me a lot of the shopping street in Vienna. There were many big fashion stores, surrounded by a variety of food places. It was amazing to see how open the economic situation is. Companies such as Lacoste, Wrangler, Nike, Apple, Rolex, Brooks Brothers, Starbucks, KFC, Hagen Dazs, Sony, McDonalds, and others were well represented there and around the city. In fact, I haven’t seen very much evidence at all of the communist government that supposedly limits political and social freedoms. It will be interesting to see how Nanjing compares to Shanghai in this regard.
After spending time on Nanjing Road, we visited Shanghai’s Jade Buddha Temple. The temple was remarkably peaceful and quiet, so I enjoyed having the opportunity to look around. That said, I felt strange looking around and taking pictures of the temple, especially because it was being used by worshippers. Just like the churches in Europe, I wish photography and visitations were limited or prohibited, because tourism just doesn’t belong in a place of worship. But that’s their choice.
*end dreamy flashback sequence* So after lunch, we boarded the bus and hit the road. By the look of things, this part of the country is an unending terrain of concrete houses and distant high rise buildings. It seems to be mostly flat, but mountains in the distance promise some interesting terrain.
Well, we just pulled off to a service area, so I’m going to go get some water and maybe a snack. Next time I write, I’ll be in Nanjing! Talk to you again soon!
As I write this, I am on a bus heading from Shanghai to Nanjing. The trip will take us 4 hours, so I figured I’d be productive by getting some writing in. So let me fill you in on the trip so far.
*dreamy flashback sequence*
It all began dark and early Monday morning when Kalli and Mrs. Hulse took me to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. I entered terminal 2 at about 4:45 am with a few mini-bagels in my pocket and two stuffed bags ready to embark. After checking in, I headed to the gate, where I began to meet my fellow travelers. A couple of us played cards and I thought about how crazy it was that I was going to China! By 6 am, we boarded our flight to Chicago, and we were off. I was out like a light.
In Chicago, we had an awesome 3 hour layover (sarcasm intended). We sat around over breakfast and talked about assorted stuff. More cards. More anticipation. Finally, at 11:30 central time, we took off from Chicago on a Boeing 747-400. The pilot announced that we would be taking a polar route- 300 miles from the North Pole, down through Russia and Mongolia, then finally through China to Shanghai. Unfortunately, our group was scattered around the plane, so I did not really talk to anyone the entire trip. Instead, I took a Tylenol pm and was out for the count. 6 hours later, I finally came around, but we were only half way there! 13 hours and a half was a REALLY long time to be on the plane, but frequent snoozing helped pass the time.
So finally (after another couple hours of napping), we landed at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport! Even though the sun had never set, the local time was 1:30 pm Tuesday. Pulling into the gate, the pilot announced that quarantine officials had to take care of some business before we could disembark. Soon, men in Tyvek suits, goggles, and facemasks boarded the plane with their handheld laser thermal imaging units. They approached every person, pointed the handheld at their forehead, and took a reading. Thankfully everyone in our group passed the thermal reading even though one person was held because he checked “cough” on a swine flu symptoms form… he was soon released.
After clearing customs, we met our tour guide, loaded onto a bus, and headed into the city. The weather was in the low 60s, and even with the heavy smog, it was still cloudy and threatening rain. We went to dinner in an ornately decorated boat on the Huangpu River.
I suppose I will interrupt my story here to talk about food. Our four major meals in Shanghai were all really similar. We would arrive and sit down at two family style tables. In the center of each table was a large, circular, glass turntable. From out of nowhere, waiters and waitresses would bring all manner of plates and dishes of a wide variety of food. Vegetables, fish, chicken, bean curd (tofu), soup… and mystery substances. I suppose about one-third of the food I have consumed I haven’t been able to identify conclusively. Most of the food has tasted good, but there have definitely been dishes difficult to stomach too. Thankfully, since each meal has been family-style (lots of dishes spread around), I have probably already consumed over 50 different dishes. A lot of it has been fried, a few things served with head attached (fish, chicken), and there has been plenty of rice, eggs, and dumplings as well. So, because there has been sooo much food already, it will be difficult for me to identify particular items. As the trip continues, however, I will “identify” and describe a few specific foods that I really appreciate… or not.
And now, we return to our intrepid traveler… After dinner, we headed to a river boat cruise. Shanghai- a gray and seemingly drab city – came to life at sunset. All the sky scrapers had elaborate neon lights and I felt that we were taking a cruise around Manhattan! It was really a spectacular 30 minute ride, except we were all extremely jet-lagged. Thankfully, my pictures have and will continue to remind me of our boat around Shanghai. Finally, we took the bus to the Shanghai Swan Hotel. It was 9 pm (9 am EDT), but it felt like 4 am. I was soon asleep.
Yesterday, my roommate Kevin and I found ourselves wide awake at 5 am, ready to start the day. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel and meandered around until meeting the group at 8:30. To begin, we went to the Shanghai Museum. This museum featured paintings, calligraphy, jade sculptures, ceramics, and currency from the area’s history. I was particularly fond of the calligraphy, which was extremely artistic. Too bad I can’t read any of it!
After the museum, we visited Shanghai’s Pudong TV and Radio Tower. The tower resembles a spaceship with a tripod base and a pair of giant purple spheres. The tower is comparable to the CN tower in many ways: similar height, awesome glass floor, lots of tourists. It was awesome. I realized I’m doing pretty well on towers. I’ve been up the Seattle Space Needle, CN tower, Washington Monument, Eiffel Tower, and now the Pudong TV tower.
Following the tower, we grabbed lunch and went to some ancient gardens and a market. The gardens were peaceful, but we somewhat rushed through them. In the adjacent market, we quickly learned that Shanghai is known for peddlers selling fake Rolexes and other cheap goods. They were everywhere… and I guess we kind of stuck out in a crowd of Asians. I saw a couple things I really wanted, but since bartering was the name of the game and lunch was starting to hit me pretty hard, I passed up on shopping. I hope I didn’t miss my best shopping opportunity for the trip! *sigh*
From the market, we went to dinner, where I poked around at some food and wasn’t feeling too adventurous. Finally, we ended the day by going to see an acrobat show – Cirque du Soleil style. It was amazing! Nonetheless, I was exhausted so our return to the hotel brought some much-needed relaxation.
This morning, we checked out of the Swan Hotel and went for some shopping on Nanjing Road. Nanjing Road reminded me a lot of the shopping street in Vienna. There were many big fashion stores, surrounded by a variety of food places. It was amazing to see how open the economic situation is. Companies such as Lacoste, Wrangler, Nike, Apple, Rolex, Brooks Brothers, Starbucks, KFC, Hagen Dazs, Sony, McDonalds, and others were well represented there and around the city. In fact, I haven’t seen very much evidence at all of the communist government that supposedly limits political and social freedoms. It will be interesting to see how Nanjing compares to Shanghai in this regard.
After spending time on Nanjing Road, we visited Shanghai’s Jade Buddha Temple. The temple was remarkably peaceful and quiet, so I enjoyed having the opportunity to look around. That said, I felt strange looking around and taking pictures of the temple, especially because it was being used by worshippers. Just like the churches in Europe, I wish photography and visitations were limited or prohibited, because tourism just doesn’t belong in a place of worship. But that’s their choice.
*end dreamy flashback sequence* So after lunch, we boarded the bus and hit the road. By the look of things, this part of the country is an unending terrain of concrete houses and distant high rise buildings. It seems to be mostly flat, but mountains in the distance promise some interesting terrain.
Well, we just pulled off to a service area, so I’m going to go get some water and maybe a snack. Next time I write, I’ll be in Nanjing! Talk to you again soon!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Preparations for China
6 days and counting!
Here are a couple business items:
-Due to the fact that we're beginning our trip with a tour of Shanghai, my first post will probably be Thursday 24 or Friday 25 from Nanjing (minus 12 hours, eastern time). If I happen to have internet in Shanghai, what a pleasant surprise that will be for everyone!
-China has internet censorship. Therefore, I may not be able to use blogger.com for my posts. In that event, I will be posting on an NC State blog that I have set up at the following address:
http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/wheresdannow
If both of those fail, I will post updates on facebook and send updates through personal contacts.
Now for packing...
Here are a couple business items:
-Due to the fact that we're beginning our trip with a tour of Shanghai, my first post will probably be Thursday 24 or Friday 25 from Nanjing (minus 12 hours, eastern time). If I happen to have internet in Shanghai, what a pleasant surprise that will be for everyone!
-China has internet censorship. Therefore, I may not be able to use blogger.com for my posts. In that event, I will be posting on an NC State blog that I have set up at the following address:
http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/wheresdannow
If both of those fail, I will post updates on facebook and send updates through personal contacts.
Now for packing...
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Countdown to China
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls-
Welcome to another great summer of travel posting! The 2009 edition of "To Infinity and Beyond" will feature six weeks of travel to everyone's favorite communist country, China. As of now, it is only 2 weeks and 6 hours until our plane takes of from Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Here are some other basic details of my trip:
When: May 11-June 24
Who: 16 NCSU Civil Engineers
Why: To study abroad in China. The program features two courses: Traffic Engineering and an intro to Electrical Engineering/Thermodynamics/Vehicle Dynamics class
Itinerary:
-May 11-12: Fly (via Chicago) to Shanghai
-May 12-14: Tour Shanghai
-May 14: Travel to Nanjing
-May 15-June 20: Nanjing program; class to be held 8:30-11:30 each day with afternoons free
-June 20-21: Night train to Beijing
-June 21-24: Tour Beijing, Great Wall, Olympic Sites, Forbidden City, etc.
-June 24: Fly back to Raleigh (flight leaves at 4:10 pm in Beijing and gets into Raleigh at 11:55 pm, including a short layover in Chicago. HA!)
So, one and all, let another excellent summer begin!
PS - In the event that Blogger.com is subject to government censor in China, I will be emailing blogs to one of a couple friendly assistants who will post on my behalf. :-)
Welcome to another great summer of travel posting! The 2009 edition of "To Infinity and Beyond" will feature six weeks of travel to everyone's favorite communist country, China. As of now, it is only 2 weeks and 6 hours until our plane takes of from Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Here are some other basic details of my trip:
When: May 11-June 24
Who: 16 NCSU Civil Engineers
Why: To study abroad in China. The program features two courses: Traffic Engineering and an intro to Electrical Engineering/Thermodynamics/Vehicle Dynamics class
Itinerary:
-May 11-12: Fly (via Chicago) to Shanghai
-May 12-14: Tour Shanghai
-May 14: Travel to Nanjing
-May 15-June 20: Nanjing program; class to be held 8:30-11:30 each day with afternoons free
-June 20-21: Night train to Beijing
-June 21-24: Tour Beijing, Great Wall, Olympic Sites, Forbidden City, etc.
-June 24: Fly back to Raleigh (flight leaves at 4:10 pm in Beijing and gets into Raleigh at 11:55 pm, including a short layover in Chicago. HA!)
So, one and all, let another excellent summer begin!
PS - In the event that Blogger.com is subject to government censor in China, I will be emailing blogs to one of a couple friendly assistants who will post on my behalf. :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)