Chengdu Chronicles

Log 60: A Few Final Words

In early February 2010, our time in China came to a close.  The last few months were quite strange as Charles left for the Philippines in November and I stayed in China for two more months.  It felt like we had one foot in China and one foot in the Philippines.  During this transition period, I frequently had déjà vu moments as the imminent departure from Chengdu reminded me so much of the departure from Samoa in 1996.  I was ready to leave and start the next chapter in our lives, but at the same time I was not ready to say goodbye – goodbye not only to the wonderful people we met in Chengdu, but also goodbye to the experience in general. 

 

The farewells to the Peace Corps staff and our friends in Chengdu were very touching.  With help from my tutor, I prepared a farewell speech to the staff in Chinese.  Someone was impressed that I only used characters for my notes during the speech.  I couldn’t imagine only saying goodbye to them in English after all of their patience in helping me use Chinese day in and day out. 

 

There were also last meals with the two families who I got to know due to their interest to practice English and to get to know a foreigner.  At the same time, these families helped me practice Chinese, learn more about Sichuan cooking and gain insights into the daily lives of these folks. 

 

My good friend from grad school, Begoña, came to Chengdu for a weekend in the middle of January during a work trip to China.  Her visit was great timing in helping me to appreciate once again some of the things that I had perhaps taken for granted, e.g., the amazing Sichuan cuisine.  She and I had the chance to visit some friends who had recently moved into their new apartment.  It was wonderful to share a meal in their new home together and then go out for a few drinks.  Moments like that evening were the focus of my last few weeks in Chengdu – spending quality time with folks and appreciating the friendships that had developed since 2007. 

 

While I won’t miss the overcast weather and polluted air of Chengdu, I will greatly miss the people… the people who made me laugh all the time and made going to work a lot of fun, and the people who were as interested in learning about Americans as we were about Chinese.  Along with the amazing places we visited and the great food that we enjoyed, the people we got to know made our 2+ years in China so memorable and worthwhile.  From this point forward, when I hear a story about China in the news…whether it’s about Google leaving due to censorship and hacking, or about not cooperating with the international community or accusations of human rights violations, I will remind myself that the people of China are not its governments’ actions/words nor are they the media’s interpretations of these actions/words. 

 

Before coming to China, I hardly knew anything about its people, language, history and culture.  In leaving, I feel I’ve learned so much and gained incredible insights into this country.  That said, this knowledge is still just the surface.  I hope to continue learning about China in bits and pieces going forward.  Now from the outside, it will be fascinating to watch how China meets the challenges it faces this century in terms of its environment, economy and peace within its borders as well as with the rest of the world. 

 

I wish China shun li (顺利)… smooth sailing amidst these challenges and as it struggles to define itself as a ‘harmonious society’.  My other wish for the country is that its leaders focus on the well-known Communist expression, wei renmin fuwu (为人民服务).  ‘Serve the people’ in terms of what’s best for their health and overall well-being.

 

 

Log 59: A Final Chat About Our Time in China

The following is a transcript of a conversation that Charles and I recorded a few days before Charles left China.  This was a chance for us to reflect on the experience and capture the highs and the lows of the past 2 ½ years…

 

What was different than what we expected?

Chris: We had heard that it would be really difficult to get to know the culture/people here, and I didn’t find that to be the case at all.  I’ve found the people here to be really fun and open, and I’m not sure why but I had expected that people would be very serious, closed off and slightly aggressive. 

 

Charles: I think that may have something to do with Sichuan, because we’ve heard and seen that some of the personalities in places on the east coast like Shanghai are not as easy-going. 

 

I was surprised by the level of consumerism and commercialism in China.  In the first neighborhood we lived in, there were Porsche Cayennes parked on the sidewalks and the shops sold upscale items that seemed more expensive than those in the United States.  I’m not sure what I was expecting, but something like the China you see in movies… crowded, sordid, and dirty.  And there were parts of Chengdu like that but not where we originally landed.  It seems like those parts of Chengdu are getting pushed out to certain suburbs and areas outside the cities.

 

What was the same as we expected?

 

Chris: I expected this experience to be really positive and exciting for us and that we’d make the most of it.  It truly has been remarkable time in terms of what we have seen, what we’ve done and the people we’ve met.

 

Charles: Yeah, I agree… we’ve really taken advantage of being here in terms of visiting places within China and learning the language.  On the flip side, one negative thing that was the same as what I expected and what I had heard about beforehand was the environment in terms of the pollution and bad weather. 

 

Chris:   I think that was actually worse than what I expected.  The winters here with hardly any sun were really hard.  I can’t believe that we had to buy a SAD (Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder) lamp.  Thank god we don’t have another Chengdu winter to get through.

 

How did you do in terms of achieving the goals we wrote down soon after coming to China?

Charles:    When I look at my goals, I think I did almost everything.  For example, we went to almost all the places I wanted to visit.  On the list I had written the Great Wall, Xian warriors, Li River, Harbin, and Leshan.  I had also written the Yangtze River because of the Three Gorges, but after being here awhile and seeing some photos and hearing stories from others, I didn’t feel the need to go there.  I also had other countries in East Asia to visit on my list, but apart from the Philippines we didn’t have the chance to go to Vietnam or Cambodia.  There was just too much to see in China.  Hopefully we’ll get to these places in the next few years. 

 

I had a language goal to be conversant in Chinese and I definitely achieved that goal.  I didn’t write down anything about being able to read and write Chinese, but because of the language program I attended, I had to learn to read and write characters.  And while it was really hard, I think it’s really cool that I can do this now. 

 

I had a goal to find a job.  I wanted to work legally in China, but in the end it seemed too dangerous in terms of not wanting to risk violating my student visa.  However, I also had volunteer goals with youth development and the environment, and I was able to do a lot of that.

 

I also had personal goals.  I wanted to lose weight and that was a huge success.  I think I lost 45 pounds and that was mainly due to an active lifestyle.  I also wrote that I wanted to have some good Chinese friends, and I definitely think we’ve done that.  Lastly, I wanted to stay positive about living here and while there have been ups and downs, we’ve stayed really positive. 

 

Chris:   Yeah, that’s true – we have stayed extremely positive, especially compared to some other expats here who became really negative and critical of Chengdu and Chinese culture/people towards the end of their time here. 

 

My list of goals was similar to yours.  For example, I had a language goal of being able to talk to co-workers, taxi drivers, waiters without too much trouble and a goal being able to read Chinese.  I definitely feel like I achieved that despite screwing up at the restaurant earlier today.  I still feel your Chinese is much better than mine, especially in terms of writing characters and being able to understand TV/movies, but I can text message and email in Chinese and read most signs – that’s really rewarding.  Just yesterday I had a positive language experience when I made that taxi driver laugh about feeling more comfortable after stopping to go to the bathroom.  That is exactly the type of interaction I wanted to be able to have in Chinese.

 

Charles:    I think that guy laughed for about five minutes about what you said.

 

Chris:   In terms of the job, I had written down that I wanted to be successful and respected without too much stress and I have been able to achieve this balance.  I also had a goal of getting involved with some volunteer work and with the English tutoring that I did for about 1 ½ years, I feel a sense of achievement with that.

 

Charles:    And that tutoring has resulted in some of our closest friendships with Chinese people.  The two families we got to know were so kind to us and it was wonderful sharing meals with them in their homes.

 

What is your favorite Chinese word or expression?

Charles:    One of my favorites is “ma fan”, which basically is used to describe something that is a pain in the neck or a difficult thing to do.  Another one is an expression that we learned early on – hao hao xuexi, tian tian xiang shang.  This is a Mao expression that means, “Study hard day in and day out.”

 

Chris:   My favorite sayings were in the Sichuan dialect.  I always thought it was funny when we asked a restaurant if they had a certain vegetable, and the quick response could be “mo dei”, which means we don’t have it.  I also liked talking with the guards at the Peace Corps office and we would often exchange the greeting around lunch time of “Ni chi guo le ma, mei you?” which means, “Haven’t you eaten?”  Around noon time this is a much more common expression than, “How are you?”

 

Who is the most interesting person who you’ve met here?

Chris:   My first thought is Zhan Yimei, who was a co-worker who passed away from lung cancer about a year ago.  I really enjoyed talking with her because she was so wise and had such a calming presence despite all she was going through.  I also think about the gay couple who we got to know.  They are such nice guys and it was great to get to know them while also understanding more about what they have to deal with in terms of being gay in China… to the extent that one of them had to go through with a wedding to a lesbian friend to relieve some of the pressure from his family – see Log 50.

Charles:    We’ve met some really interesting people along the way but I don’t remember or know many of their names, like that one artist in Xian who made wood cutout prints of countryside and agriculture scenes.  He was so charismatic and incredibly proud of his lifetime of work and the publicity that he had received in foreign periodicals.

 

What did you like most about living in China?

Charles:    The food…how delicious it is, how cheap it is, how easily available it is.  That is true not only for the Sichuan cuisine we appreciated quite often, but also for the fruits and vegetables that are available from folks selling their produce from carts along sidewalks.  The taste of the produce without any of the preservatives that we’re used to in the States was amazing …granted we had to be careful about washing the veggies as many are grown using ‘night soil’, a.k.a. human excrement. 

 

The people in general are genuinely nice and interested in other cultures and certainly not anti-American.  We’ve already mentioned a few of these folks, but I also consider the folks we got to know in our nearby “alley”, like the people at the Yuan Yuan restaurant and the man who owned the small tea shop who always invited us to have tea with him.  Lastly, I really liked how our bicycles were our main form of transportation.

 

Chris:   I was just thinking about that today on my way home from work.  I really like how we haven’t driven or had the urge to buy a car…it’s been good to reduce our carbon footprint while getting exercise wherever we wanted to go.  A bicycle also provides the right speed to really appreciate the environment, like the willow trees along the river and the arched bridge that we crossed every day.  I also liked that we learned how to use the buses to get around.  It helped us save money and kept us safer as we didn’t want to ride our bikes at night.

 

What were your least favorite things about living here?

Chris:   For me, it’s the crowds.  There are just a lot of people here and there are moments when everyone seems to be in the same place all at once. 

 

Charles:    The one aspect of life in China that bothered me the most was Internet censorship.  I really hate that I couldn’t keep in touch with my friends using Facebook.  Our own blog and sites like YouTube were also blocked and in my opinion, that type of access to information is a freedom that shouldn’t be restricted. 

 

The pollution was also something that got to me.  There were days when I felt like I had smoked a pack of cigarettes (when I hadn’t) and that just can’t be good for our lungs.

 

What were your favorite restaurants?

Chris:   The first thing that comes to my mind is the duck restaurant (Dadong) in Beijing – great duck and amazing sides like that ox tail dish.  Closer to home, Yuan Yuan, our ‘alley’ restaurant, always served great food and the people were incredibly friendly/warm.  It almost felt like being at home when we ate there.

 

Charles:    The two times we went to M on the Bund in Shanghai were memorable for me.  What fantastic, upscale western fare with one of the best views of the modern Pudong East skyscrapers and the traditional early 20^th century buildings on the Bund… I can’t think of a better view in any other restaurant that I’ve been to.

 

What were your favorite dishes?

Chris:   Su Jia Doufu from Yuan Yuan.  This tofu dish, which was a unique specialty of this restaurant as most Sichuan people had never heard of it before, was fried with a slice of meat in the middle and a yuxiang sauce… delicious every time.

 

Charles:    That dish was good.  Tieban Riben Doufu (Japanese tofu in a hot skillet) was also really tasty.

 

Chris:   How funny that our favorite dishes were tofu.  I never liked tofu in the States, but the way they prepare it in China is totally different.  That’s something I will miss tremendously.

 

Charles/Chris:  Pretty much all the Sichuan dishes – Gongbao jiding (Kung Pao Chicken), Yuxiang Qiezi (Fish fragrant eggplant), Ganbian Tudou Si (Fried thin potato sticks).  It’s hard to pick just one because they’re all so good.  The winter vegetables were also the best – bai you cai (rapeseed) and wandou jian (pea leaves) were fantastic from fall to winter.

 

What were you favorite trips?

Chris:   First trip outside of Chengdu to Lijiang, Yunnan.  After our first five months in Chengdu, the blue skies and bright sunshine of Lijian were incredibly refreshing.  The old town was scenic with the small canals.  We rented bikes one day to see the countryside and visit two small towns, the day-trip to Tiger Leaping Gorge (despite the scary rebar ladder that we had to climb to get out of the gorge).  It just seems like we did a lot there and it was such a wonderful break from the gloomy Chengdu winter.

 

Charles:    I really liked Tibet.  I wish you could have gone too because it was a magical place, steeped in so much tradition.  The people there are so warm and friendly despite all the struggles they’ve experienced since the 1950s.

 

Chris:   I wish I could have gone, but at least I was able to experience Tibetan culture near Jiuzhaigou in northern Sichuan.  That village homestay was such a fascinating experience in a beautiful natural setting.  I’m so glad that we experienced that homestay as well as the beautiful natural wonder of Jiuzhaigou twice – first with Edith and Gloria and then with Begona’s family.  Those trips had so many picturesque, breathtaking scenes that are so clear in my mind.

 

Charles:    The beauty there was amazing – on par with the beauty of Yangshuo (karst mountains), which we shared with Mary.  I’m glad that most of our best trips were with visiting family and friends.

 

What was the scariest moment for you?

Chris:   Without a doubt, it would have been to be the Sichuan earthquake.  What a terrifying event.

 

Charles:    What was even more terrifying was the aftermath.  Not only did we have the frequent aftershocks, but there was an overwhelming sense of paranoia from the general population that was partly caused by specific government predictions of aftershocks during certain time periods.  People slept in tents and their cars for almost two weeks and their fear was contagious.  What an awful and horrible period.  Thank god we got out of here and flew to Xian with Mary to get away from that stress.

 

Chris:   It was also frightening the two times when Marley got sick.  We both thought that we might lose her.  Thank god for the vets here who helped us get her well again.

 

What was the most beautiful site you saw?

Chris:   Gliding down the Yulong River in Guangxi on a bamboo raft with a cold beer in hand as we took in the views of the karst mountain peaks in one of the most peaceful scenes and one so iconic of China.

 

Charles:    First time I saw the Potala Palace in Lhasa against the most crystal blue sky I think I’ve ever seen.  And then there was the morning we woke up to the snow-covered Jiuzhaigou Tibetan village and the subsequent ride away from that village and the Jiuzhaigou valley.  What an amazing landscape that seemed to be and it seemed like a painting had come to life.

 

Is there anything you would have done differently?

Charles:    My initial approach to learning Chinese was too stressful during the first year or so.  I thought it got in the way of us doing other things in the evenings and on weekends.

 

Chris:   But I think it was good that you took it seriously because it kept you interested/engaged.

 

Charles:    You’re right… it definitely allowed me to interact independently from my spouse and create my own circle of friends.  But, I still think I put too much pressure on myself regarding homework, studying for tests and thinking about taking the HSK exam (national exam for Chinese learning; similar to the TEFL exam in the States).  I’m really happy with the results of my language abilities, but perhaps I could have taken it more in stride.

 

Chris:   I wish I had learned to cook Sichuan dishes earlier.  I also think there are a lot of places that I wish we had visited like Inner Mongolia, the central provinces west of Shanghai and Xinjiang.

 

Charles:    Yeah, maybe we should have planned the trip to Xinjiang earlier.  Although we couldn’t have predicted the timing of the civil unrest that occurred there in June 2009, if we had planned to go last year it would have given us more options in case problems arose between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese.

 

What accomplishment are you most proud of?

 

Chris:   I am most proud of what I’ve been able to do as the Peace Corps Admin Officer especially in terms of the relationships I have developed with the local staff.  At the same time, I’m very content with what I hear Volunteers tell me such as, “You’d make a great country director… you’re the person we go to with any questions.”  It has been a very rewarding work experience and I feel like I’ve made a small difference in the lives of the people I work with and the volunteers I support.

 

Charles:    I am really proud that neither of us became bitter or sour about the experience, especially after hearing Mary describe “vinegar lady” in Micronesia.  And we definitely ran into foreigners here who had an anti-China outlook and I looked at them and thought that they should just leave.  If you’re not going to make the most of this place and appreciate the differences, then get out.  China is just not going to change for you.

 

I am also proud that we came out as a gay couple to the staff of Peace Corps in a slow, culturally-sensitive way.  The goodbye party that the staff organized for me was so touching and meant so much to me. 

 

Chris:   That goodbye party was incredibly special.  I think it was a testament to you and your outgoing personality.  The staff loved you and really appreciated your presence whenever you came to the office either for social events or to help them with presentation skills training, and they appreciated the parties we hosted at our apartment, including the “cooking class” that you organized. 

 

Charles:    Wow, this was really a long conversation.

 

Chris:   But, it was important to reflect and capture our thoughts before you head off to Manila next week.

 

Charles:    It’s hard to believe that this experience is ending, but the timing feels right to leave… bye China!

 

Chris:   Zai jian!  (Literally, see you again!)

Log 58: Borg vs. McEnroe in Chengdu

Everyone who knows us, knows that Charles and I have a healthy and fiercely competitive rivalry on the tennis court.  We’ve been playing each other for almost ten years now and we’re incredibly fortunate that the main recreational activity we continue to enjoy each week is a few hours on the tennis court.  We’re also lucky that our tennis skill levels are similar.  Our rivalry, however pales in comparison to the rivalry between John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.  These two old timers along with six other retired players came to Chengdu for a tournament in November 2009.  When we heard about the tournament we couldn’t believe that professional tennis, albeit the old folks, was coming to Chengdu! 

 

The tournament was held in a brand new tennis facility located in the far southern suburbs of the city.  With the recent success of Chinese women on the world tour, perhaps Chengdu is planning for a boom in tennis popularity over the next few years.  This place had a really nice set-up with a main center court that had seating for several thousand and then 20 or so courts surrounding it. 

 

The tournament had plenty of big names. – the first match we watched was Australian Pat Cash against Croatian Goran Ivanisevic, both former Wimbledon winners.  Although Cash has had a few beers since the prime of his career, we were still impressed with his smooth serve and volley game, which is now extremely rare with current tennis professionals.  Their match was followed by Thomas Enqvist (Sweden, Australian Open finalist) and Sergui Bruguera (Spain, French Open champion in the mid 1990s).  They played an impressive match, which ended in a tiebreaker won by Enqvist who eventually ended up winning the tournament the following day.

 

However, the next match was the main reason we had come to watch tennis that day.  I would never have thought that I’d have the chance to see Borg and McEnroe play.  As a kid, I remember watching their matches, especially the classic Wimbledon final of 1980.  Their matches along with the battles between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova were one of the reasons I fell in love with tennis.  And here I was, almost thirty years later, watching these two legends take the court to play each other.  While McEnroe looked to be in better shape (although he was always kind of scrawny), Borg seemed to be on the top of his game, especially for someone who retired in 1983.  Their rallies, serves and winners provided some exciting tennis to watch.  Borg won in straight sets, but later I read that this was Borg’s first win over McEnroe in the 10 times that the two have played since 2000. 

 

It was yet another moment during our time in China when I look back and think, “Did that really happen?,” as it seems surreal that we were able to watch a Borg.-McEnroe match live…live in Chengdu!  In contrast, what will be a very real and related memory for me is how in the ‘challenge’ Tollhouse Cup series that Charles and I play against each other on the tennis court, I won three out of four while living in Chengdu.  He owes me dinner for the last victory and I’m saving it for a nice place in Washington!  Next stop on the Tollhouse Tour – Manila, Philippines.  I just hope we can keep playing tennis well into our golden years like Borg and McEnroe since it is good exercise and a lot of fun for both of us.

Log 57: Buy, buy before bye-bye

With only a short amount of time left in China, Chris and I are starting to work down the list of things that we had made a mental note to buy here before leaving.  It isn’t a long list, but some items are comparatively costly and we’ve been putting off spending the money until now.  This is our last chance to buy them so we're doing it! 

Ming Dynasty set of chairs and small table.  As soon as we first saw them, both Chris and I thought these were really cool looking.  Pieces over 600 years old can be viewed in various museums around the country, and furniture showrooms that specialize in replicas feel more like galleries than stores.  These chairs are simple and refined, combining strong angular shapes of the seat and base, with beautifully curved back and armrests.  The only problem with them is that they can sometimes be uncomfortable.  Last weekend Chris and I went to the antique market where we looked at and sat in many, many chairs.  We discovered that subtle differences in design made drastic differences in comfort.  We settled on a set of two chairs and a table made from a dark coffee colored wood known as “chicken wing wood” because the grain of the wood looks somewhat like the feathers of a chicken’s wing.  The chairs and table are an exact copy of a Ming Dynasty set and they’re beautiful….. and comfortable!!!!

Silk comforter.  In addition to the items that we want to buy, my sister Gloria sent a list of items that she wants us to buy for her.  They’re items that she didn’t buy while she was here (or didn’t buy enough of).  She’s also thinking of doing her new house in Feng Shui and is looking for some key pieces to improve the qi of the place; thus improving her luck and guaranteeing her good fortune. 

When Gloria visited us last year, her first few weeks in China were spent with a tour group.  I told her “if you see something that you like along the way, buy it because you don’t know if you’ll ever see something quite like it again”.  This is true for many items here, many of which are regional specialties and can only be found in specific places.  She took my advice and when her tour group stopped by a silk market she bought herself a silk comforter and two silk pillows.  Silk comforters, as the name implies, are stuffed with raw silk threads.  They’re famous for being extremely light weight, yet very warm.  Gloria bought a light-weight summer comforter and she absolutely loves it! 

We were thinking of getting one as well, but the price was a prohibitive factor (there isn't a silk factory here in Chengdu and only the higher-end stores carry them here).  We already have a great down-filled comforter, but the drawback with it is that it’s somewhat heavy and it's actually a little too warm to use on anything but the coolest nights.

Gloria’s summer comforter is ideal to use through most of the year in San Diego but when she found out that we were leaving China she asked us to buy her a more substantial comforter to use during winter.  We went into the store to buy it for her and we found the process and the product to be so interesting that we ended up coming away with TWO; one for her and one for us!!

Silk comforters can be purchased in various sizes and the retailers make them per your specifications, right before your eyes.  During Gloria's trip to the silk factory she learned that the comforter filling is actually composed of multiple thin layers made from a double silk worm cocoon, which is a large cocoon produced by two silk worms.  Gloria says; "single-worm cocoons are typically unraveled into one very long silk thread, the unusual double cocoons, because the silk threads of the two worms are intertwined are impossible to unravel, therefore they are used to make the layers for comforters.  They open up the cocoon and remove the worm, then flatten it- making a small square of silk. Four people then each take one corner of the square and pull. Each small square of silk eventually becomes as large as the very thin layers that you see in the movie below."

When buying one of these, you pay for the silk comforter (price is determined by size) as well as the silk filling (price is per “jin”- which is half a kilogram).  The sales people informed us that five jin (only 2.5 kilograms) is more than enough to keep someone warm during the cold Chengdu winters, but taking into account that the average Sichuan person’s tolerance for cold is much higher than a typical westerner, we added a couple more jin and purchased seven jin comforters.  They made our comforters as we watched:  starting by turning the comforter inside out and laying it out on a large wooden work table, then weighing the silk and carefully spreading it out across the entire comforter, flipping the whole mass in upon itself, and finally sewing it in certain areas to help keep the silk filling from moving around in the comforter.

We’re obviously not going to get a lot of use out of our comforter while we’re in the Philippines, but we’re following the advice that we gave Gloria, “get it now because you’ll probably not get another opportunity to buy one like it again!”

ART- One other thing that we’ve been planning to do before we leave is to get all of our art pieces framed.  As in many other countries, the arts and crafts here are unique, beautiful, and affordable, and we've bought a lot of interesting pieces over the last couple of years.  The dilemma that most people face afterwards is the high cost of getting the art custom-framed in the United States.  In my opinion, custom framers in the United States gouge us out of as much money as they can for a service that doesn’t really warrant the cost.  More often than not the pieces that people buy end up sitting in a closet because despite how pretty it would look framed, it’s hard to justify spending $300 to frame something that cost less than $30 to buy.  Framing isn’t an issue in China however.  For a custom   made frame that would cost $250 in the US, you could get the same thing done here for $10.  Seriously.  It’s THAT big of a price difference and there is no loss in quality of framing or the selection of framing materials.

One of the main reasons people don’t capitalize on this opportunity to get things framed cheaply, however, is the hassle involved in bringing a large framed piece of art back to the United States.  Fortunately for us, this isn’t an issue.  Even with everything that we’ve purchased while here, we are well under the allotted weight allowed for the shipment of our household effects.  We just needed to make sure that we had everything we wanted before the packers come to pack us out (next week), hence the buying frenzy.  In a few weeks our stuff will all be moved to the Philippines for us (where we will no doubt buy MORE STUFF) and eventually everything that we accumulate will make it back to the United States. 

Now people might wonder:  do we really NEED all of this stuff?  Do we need a Ming Dynasty chair, a fairly sizeable replica of a terracotta warrior, hand-wrought silver ornaments made my Miao minority craftsmen, or delicate watercolor paintings done by an amazingly talented disabled Chinese artist?  For that matter did we really NEED the hand knotted rugs bought in Armenia, and beautifully woven wedding blanket from Mali, or the colorful oil paintings from Peru?  Of course the answer is “no” we don’t need any of this stuff.  We don’t even necessarily want a lot of stuff.  What we DO want, however, is to be able to really remember these places and these experiences.  We find that we can’t help but to think of the experiences when we look at these things that surround us.  Sure, a picture might do the same thing, but pictures more often than not, sit in photo-albums, in photo-books, on a website, or in a memory stick somewhere, rarely ever looked at beyond the first time they were put together, and rarely shared beyond the first mass distribution of the photo-sharing website link.  All of this stuff, however, surrounds us.  We walk on it every day.  We sit on it, we sleep under it, and we use it to cook and to eat.  It hangs on the wall or sits on a table and we look at it and appreciate it, every single day. 

This stuff serves to remind us of our great adventures overseas and of the great people that we’ve met along the way.  They are interesting conversation topics that allow us to share our experiences with our houseguests without forcing them to sit through a slide show.  Most importantly, they serve to inspire us to have more of these adventures, to commit to seeing as much of the world as we can, and to bringing back a little memento (or two) to continue to remind and inspire us.

POST SCRIPT—so the movers came and packed us out yesterday; and five hours and 105 boxes later (most of which were marked “decorative items” to indicate what was inside) we might want to reconsider our whole “buy stuff” approach to fueling our inspiration……. On second thought, a lot of the boxes were (in my opinion) a little under-packed.  For example, they went crazy with the bubble wrap and paper when preparing our wine glasses for shipment (which I don’t really mind per se, because we want these wine glasses to make the trip safe and sound, but you’d think you should be able to fit more than 10 glasses in a huge box!).  Off on our next adventure!!!!!

Log 56: Fenghuang and Xijiang

 

With our time quickly winding down in China we headed out on our last domestic adventure in late October 2009.  Based on strong recommendations from several of the Chinese Peace Corps staff members, we traveled East and South to two amazing sites – an ancient riverside town in western Hunan province (Fenghuang) and a minority village in central Guizhou province (Xijiang). The trip was wonderful and provided us with several images and impressions of China that we will not soon forget – one funny one that we wouldn't mind forgetting, but most that we hope to remember for many, many years to come.

 

We took an overnight train from Chengdu to the eastern edge of Guizhou province to a town called Tongren.  Neither of us had traveled by “soft-sleeper” before (a cabin with four beds and a door), so we splurged to experience the more private four person compartment vs. the less private and more open 6-person hard sleeper arrangement.  Our compartment-mates were nice people, very open and friendly, and willing to talk to a few foreigners – one was an older man from Shandong province who was in the midst of vacation in central China and the other was a young guy from Chengdu, who was headed to Shanghai and was very animated during our talks, especially when we were discussing the NBA.  I was fighting a cold, and I took the top bunk and was asleep soon after the train started to move around 10pm.  Charles was awake a bit longer.  The younger kid in our compartment was quite agile in getting from the floor to his top bunk – picture a Chinese gymnast on the parallel bars swinging himself up to the bunk in one graceful and quick movement.  This was in stark contrast to me, trying to not fall on my butt as I climbed up or down from the bunk.  As everyone else was preparing for bed, which for our Chinese friends included removing all of their clothes but their underwear, Charles was “lucky” to witness the old man’s curiosity in how the kid was able to get in the bunk so quickly.  This is the image referenced earlier that we’d like to forget.  You can imagine that an old man in his tight briefs trying to jump up to a top bunk with his body a few inches from your face is not all that pleasant.  The same scene, minus the acrobatics, was repeated early the next morning when Charles awoke to the man standing between the beds while he was putting his pants back on.  “Good morning” and it’s time to get off this train!

 

In Tongren we met a few Peace Corps Volunteers for an early lunch before taking a bus to the town of Fenghuang in Hunan – about 1 ½ hours away.  Fenghuang is a beautiful riverside town with an ancient city wall, gate towers and houses on stilts that are built into the cliffs along the riverside, all of which date from the 1600s.  We enjoyed walking along both sides of the river and exploring the various shops in the narrow alleys of Fenghuang, which looked to us like an elaborate movie set rather than a vibrant authentic village.  In Fenghuang we had our first stay in a Chinese guesthouse (or kezhan in Chinese).  Kezhans are much simpler than hotels and are more akin to hostels.  We discovered that kezhans only have squat toilets and they don’t provide towels.  In shopping for towels in the old town, we found that only Chinese-style bath towels were available.  “What is a Chinese style towel?” you might ask?  Picture a dishtowel and you would be pretty close.  While we were fine using our new Chinese towels for a few days, we missed our big American-sized bath towels and didn’t feel like we ever got completely dry.  The kezhan we stayed in was right alongside the river with a balcony that overlooked a pagoda and several old style pavilions.  At night the lights on these structures provided a nice backdrop for the people that released floating candles along the river.  The other amazing aspect of this kezhan was how quiet and peaceful it was at night which was a significant contrast to our Chengdu apartment (and most other places in China for that matter).  Once the sun rose though, people were out living their lives in the much the same ways that they did hundreds of years ago probably; washing their clothes and vegetables in the river (note to self: “make sure vegetables consumed are well-cooked and absolutely NO salads!”)

 

After a couple of days we traveled from Fenghuang, Hunan to Xijiang in Guizhou by renting a car and driver from one of the Peace Corps counterpart universities in Tongren.  We weren’t expecting the trip to include a couple of people from the foreign affairs office of that university, however.  They were headed to a town near our destination and decided to combine the two trips.  One of them was a heavy smoker who, in broken English, repeated the phrase “I need smoking” more than a few times on the trip.  It turned out that these folks were incredibly warm and friendly people though and we enjoyed our conversation with them during the five-hour ride through the interesting countryside.

 

The beautiful mountain village of Xijiang is thought to be one of the largest traditional villages of the Miao minority.  Miao (H’mong) people are spread across Southern China from northern Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.  While part of Xijiang has been restored and fixed up for tourists, the majority of the village feels like it has hardly changed for centuries.  The two storey houses are built of wood and stone with the lowest level devoted to livestock and the buildings all have large central windows on the upper floors where corn and peppers are hung to dry. 

 

The majority of the inhabitants of Xijiang are farmers.  Starting at the town edge and extending far into the surrounding hills were beautiful rice paddy terraces.  Although the rice crop had already been harvested, we enjoyed exploring around the paddies with their odd-shaped stacks of dried rice stalks and farmers busily headed to and fro.  We noticed several farmers using large woven bottomless baskets in the paddies and at first I thought they were doing something to prepare for next year’s rice crop, but when we talked to one woman who was agilely moving her basket around she told us that she was trying to catch a type of fish that thrives in the flooded paddies.  These folks are nothing if not resourceful.  We stopped to watch for a while and though she didn’t catch a fish while we were watching, she did pull out a few fist-sized clams.  We walked for a few hours in the terraces along the river and away from the village, enjoying the clean air, the beautiful scenery and exchanging friendly greetings with the many farmers that we encountered along the way. 

 

Back in the village, we found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served one of the local specialties:  hot and sour fish soup.  While we enjoyed the soup, during our meal we were alarmed by the many bursts of small firecrackers that were being set-off by kids.  Since we arrived (the day before) the firecrackers had been going off throughout the town, at times startling us and making us jump.  At first we were annoyed and thought it was a plot to frighten tourists, but after lunch, a shop vendor explained to us that the Miao New Year was being celebrated that evening.  As the night began, the fireworks and firecrackers increased in intensity, and at midnight we were awakened to a booming onslaught of firecrackers that lit up and shook the entire village.  Charles tells me that it was quite a sight.  He watched for several minutes as the ground-level sparks and rumbling reminded him of a scene in Apocalypse Now, but I was too lazy to get out of bed! 

 

The next morning we took a bus to the nearby larger city of Kaili.  On our walk to the bus station, we saw a restaurant sign that just cracked us up.  Guizhou is famous for its culinary specialty “dog hotpot”, which is dog meat served in a spicy soup.  The sign had a picture of the dog on it that looked absolutely (and rightly so) petrified.  We thought it was a riot, and don’t worry, we didn’t show the photo to Marley when we got back to Chengdu! 

 

The bus ride to Kaili through the mountain passes of Guizhou was winding and beautiful and it gave us an appreciation for how separated and hidden the various Miao villages we passed were from each other- and from the rest of China.  After a brief stop in Kaili, we took another bus, although this one was not as scenic, to the capital of Guizhou, Guiyang, and from there we flew back to Chengdu. 

 

This trip was a wonderful trip of planes, trains, automobiles and buses, which allowed us to explore western China for one final time.  For that reason alone, this trip was especially memorable because we don’t know if we’ll ever make it back to China again.  But it was also memorable because we saw some of the most beautiful sights that we had ever seen here in China during this last trip.  Over the last 2+ years, we’ve had some amazing trips within this large and diverse country.  We’ve seen the beautiful ice sculptures in Haerbin, the famous Great Wall in Beijing, impressive and serene karst mountains in Guangxi, the colonial Bund of Shanghai, and the natural beauty of Jiuzhaigou in northern Sichuan to name just a few of the places we’ve seen.  This last trip really drove home that fact that this has been a fascinating and beautiful country to have explored during the time when we called Chengdu our home.

 

 

Log 55: Baking 101

Chinese people don't bake. 

They fry.  They steam.  They roast.  They boil.....there are dishes that involve combinations of these various cooking techniques, but they don't EVER bake.  The reason for this was a little bit of a mystery to me until it dawned on me that the activity of baking is predominantly a "wheat culture" activity.  In culturally traditional "corn cultures" as can be found in the Americas, and the "rice cultures" of East and SE Asia you just don't see a long history of baking.

However, if you make your way west from here to Central Asia and South Asia, you don't have to go too far before you start to find cultures that make excellent unleavened breads.  The Uyghur people in Xinjiang, China's westernmost province bake delicious sesame flavored flat-breads in big vase shaped ovens.  They also make the most delectable lamb-filled baked bread (called "san sams" in their language) that they bake by wetting the dough with water and then sticking them to the inside walls of the ovens.  Continue further west from here and you'll find that the art of baking continues to elevate in complexity until it reaches its apogee in Europe.  To say that "the Europeans can bake" would be a gross understatement.  Breads, cakes, pies, cookies.... flans, tarts, tortes, (which I only recently realized were NOT the same thing) etc., etc.  The things that the people there do with ground wheat (aka flour) and an oven are mind boggling.  Anytime that a friend of ours goes to Beijing, we coerce them to make a stop at the German bread bakery there, in order for them to bring us back a loaf or two of their delicious breads (of the at least 15 different varieties that are available).

This isn't to say that you can't buy bread or cake in Chengdu.  They're available pretty much everywhere and at all times of the day.  However, the sad fact of the matter is that the baked goods that we can get here are not very pleasing to our western palates.  Breads tend to be soft, white, and sweet.  Bakers also tend to add stuff that we wouldn't necessarily choose to add to our bread:  sweet red-beans, black sesame paste, and this stuff called "meat floss" which is made from dried pork that has been finely shredded. 

The cakes here always tend to be a huge disappointment as well.  They're wonderfully decorated, gorgeous works of art that are so bland and flavorless that you often have to read the tag to figure out what type of cake you're eating.  The Chinese palate has a comparatively low tolerance for sugar and the desserts here are adjusted accordingly.  The other "off" thing about many of the cakes here is that there are usually cherry tomatoes on them.  The majority of the cakes are decorated with shiny sugar-glazed fruit, and cherry tomatoes are used to add a bit of glistening red to the orange of oranges and the green of kiwi.  Because cherry tomatoes are considered a fruit here (and technically speaking, from a botanical standpoint, they actually ARE a fruit), it isn't unusual to see them added among the watermelon, orange, and apple slices in an "end of the meal" fruit plate, or as one of the fruits in a fruit tart.  Our friend Shirley told us of a time when she had special ordered a carrot cake decorated with the Peace Corps logo on it.  They were extremely happy with the final outcome........ that is until they realized that the red part of the logo was done in..... you guessed it!  Ketchup!!!  ugh.

Needless to say, Chris and I realized pretty quickly that if we wanted a truly satisfying baked dessert, we were going to have to make it ourselves.  Over the course of the last couple of years we've rediscovered our interests in baking.  While our skills have improved significantly, breads are still a little out of our league.... and who's got the time or patience for that anyways?  Cakes, pies, and cookies however are not a problem.  Many of the ingredients (and viable substitutes) are widely available here and while our "oven" is actually little more than a glorified toaster oven (especially by American standards) it is perfectly adequate for doing the job, and over the last couple of years we've been really good about sharing our baked desserts with our Chinese friends.  In fact, pretty much every time that there is an office celebration we have brought in something baked to share, and every time that we've brought visiting guests into the office to meet the staff, they've always baked their own specialties to share with them (Gloria made cookies, Mary made pie, and Begonia made flan).

While a couple of folks complained that our desserts were a little on the sweet side, most of them had that "aha" moment where they looked at us, smiled and said, "So this is what chocolate cake is supposed to taste like?”, which is always quickly followed by, "Will you show us how to make this please?!?”, to which I have always replied, "Sure, sure."

So with my time here dwindling down to mere weeks, last weekend I finally decided to hold a baking class for the Peace Corps staff who had indicated an interest in learning how to bake.  Though none of the six of them had ever baked before, they were enthusiastic to learn about the process.  Their knowledge was minimal to non-existent, and ingredients like nutmeg, baking soda, and vanilla were completely foreign to them.  Most of them didn't even have ovens, their decision as to whether or not to purchase one resting on whether or not their experience in my class was a positive one.

In planning for the class, I conducted a brief needs assessment.  From their responses I identified three recipes that were consistent favorites that we would all make together:  pumpkin pie, lemon cake, and fruit and nut muffins (aka "morning glory muffins").  With Chris as my able-bodied sous chef, we presented our own cooking show, demonstrating the processes and involving the class, giving them hands-on experience in the process of baking desserts, covering things like:  how to use measuring spoons and measuring cups, greasing and flouring a pan, and testing for doneness with a toothpick.  It was all very interesting to them, and best of all..... it was FUN!  We all had a blast and our class discovered that baking desserts is not the intimidating intricate process that they had thought it to be.  Quite the opposite, they found it to be easy and enjoyable and they were thrilled when everything that they made themselves that day came out perfectly delicious.  Their favorite was the lemon cake, a recipe that was given to me by my friend Sueko, who got the recipe from her mom.  I love that about recipes; how they have a
history and how you can share that history with the people that you pass them on to.

At the end of the day everyone left excited (and full!).  As they were leaving they talked about plans for sharing their new skills with friends and baking homemade desserts for their children.   Some have since purchased ovens and have asked for additional recipes..... recipes of which I'm sure they'll decrease the amount of sugar by at least half!

We've had a lot of interesting cross cultural experiences here in China, and I have say that this baking class ranks right up there as one of the best.  Many people who serve in the Peace Corps will say something along the lines of "I gained much more than I ever gave", in an effort to describe how overwhelmingly enriching the experience of living in these cultures is, and how extremely giving the people that we serve are toward us while we are there.  It can sometimes make our best efforts seem quite small and insignificant.  What we often realize later on is that the seemingly insignificant things that we do often have the biggest positive impact.  In this case, I'm pretty sure that teaching the staff how to bake cakes isn't going to change the world, but I do know for sure that taking our Sunday afternoon to teach them a new skill made them very happy and very excited.  The experience will be a shared memory for both us and them of several laughs (especially when we made them wear silly aprons!), an exchange of ideas, new English words for them, new Chinese words for us and a few more pounds around the waistline from all those sweets!

Log 54: The Enciso Family Cookbook

I have always wanted to write a book.  It has been on my “list of things that I want to do in my life” for ages now.  Here in China I knew I would finally have the time to do it.  In fact, I started working on a novel during my first summer vacation here.  The novel was a political thriller based in China, where the protagonist was a foreign student from the US who uncovered (and eventually thwarted) an evil genocidal plot by a rogue subversive group within the Chinese government.  One of my favorite antagonists in the book was a homicidal, criminally insane, former world-champion Chinese female gymnast/assassin who was barely four feet tall.  Her favorite method of killing people was by jumping on their backs (in a stylish “full-twisting Sukahara”) and strangling them with her powerful legs……… she was bad ass.

I’m not sure that The People’s Republic (working title) will ever get finished, but my second summer vacation was spent working on another book which I’m happy to report has finally been completed.  This book is NOT a work of fiction.  In fact, it is the exact opposite.  As the name implies, The Enciso Family Cookbook highlights a collection of (mostly Filipino) recipes that I’ve collected from my family.  It is also replete with family photos and stories.  Using the Adobe desktop publishing software, InDesign, I finished putting it together into what ended up being a fine looking book, which is a little surprising given that my only previous experience with InDesign was a five-minute “how to” tutorial from our friend Nerissa. 

Below is an introduction that I wrote and included in the book:

Back when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tonga, I discovered that whenever I felt severely homesick, the best cure was a little bit of Filipino “home cooking”.  Of course, seeing as how I couldn’t really cook Filipino food-- because before I moved to Tonga ,all that I had to do to access home cooking was to request it directly from the source (Mom or Dad), obtaining or making food that tasted “just like home” presented major challenges for me.

I had some vague idea of how some of dishes were cooked, having watched my mom cook for us every day.  I was never one of those kids that had to be dragged back into the house kicking and screaming at dinner time.  In fact I was quite the opposite.  I was the kid who knew exactly when dinner was going to be served and who got home early to help out with the easier parts of the process.  This is how I learned the word "guissaw", which means to sauté.  Mom frequently assigned this task to me because the overwhelming majority of the Filipino dishes that Mom cooked started with the process of guissawing garlic in cooking oil until it was golden brown and had infused the oil with its flavors, and then adding sliced onions and guissawing those until they were soft and clear.  Beyond that, however, I never actually learned how to cook any of the Filipino dishes that Mom and Dad made for us while we were growing up. 

In order to overcome my homesickness while I was living in Tonga, it was imperative that I learn how to make some of these dishes.  Through snail mail communication with Mom and Dad (this was before email and each letter took an average of two weeks to arrive in Tonga) I managed to learn a few of the easier dishes like adobo and pancit.  The process of learning these dishes has continued over the last several years and has eventually morphed into this project:  The Enciso Family Cookbook.

This cookbook contains the recipes of most of our favorite dishes from when we were growing up, many of which we only knew by their nicknames (such as the dish we refer to as “balls balls balls”).  It also contains recipes of some of our current individual “specialties”, those dishes for which we are known among our circles of friends because we tend to make them for guests.  They’re our “go to” dishes, if you will.  Our extended family is represented as well, with recipes that Damian and Chris recall most from their own childhoods.  This book is a true family book in every sense of the word.

Putting this book together has been a work of joy.  If there’s anything that we Encisos do well, it’s FOOD (both cooking food AND eating food), and this book effectively captures this in the various recipes, stories, quotes, and pictures.  My hope is that this book will help to ensure that no matter WHERE we all are in this big world, none of us will ever feel homesick again and that future generations of Encisos will always be able to make these dishes, that are all such an important part of who we are.

Charles

The book also contains a brief glossary because I use several Tagalog and Illocano words that people might not be familiar with.  The glossary was also another place where I could tell more stories about my family.  For example:

Bagoong-  Bagoong is a salted, fermented fish or shrimp based paste that is used to add fishy/salty flavors to Filipino cooking.  Bagoong alamang is the shrimp based version and is the type most commonly used by Mom and Dad.  Sometimes bagoong alamang is bright pink, or dull purple, or even gray- depending on the brand that you buy.  As you would expect, it has a VERY strong fish smell, especially when fried (as when cooking kare kare), and can really stink up a house in very little time.

Dad tells a funny story of an event that occurred when he and a Filipino friend, who was in the Navy with him, were riding the San Francisco trolley-cars back in the 1960s.  His friend accidentally dropped a bottle of bagoong which quickly stunk up the entire trolley car.  For whatever reason (probably embarrassment!), Dad’s friend started to pretend that he was Chinese, mimicking the sounds of spoken Chinese, figuring to lay blame on the Chinese culture for the horrible smell in the trolley car.  However, his ploy was unsuccessful.  An old Chinese man on the trolley got up, pointed to Dad’s friend and started shouting:  “Him lying!!!  Him no China man, him Filipino!”

I submitted the cookbook to the online book publishing company Viovio, and ordered it in the 12.5 in. X 10 in. hardcover spiral bound format.  I specifically designed the book for this size and format because the spiral binding will allow cooks to easily keep the book open at the page that they’ re using and the large size makes it easy to read while working on a recipe.  You can check out more of the book by going to this website:  http://www.viovio.com/shop/55571

While it lacks the intrigue and excitement of a political thriller, The Enciso Family Cookbook is still (at this point at least) a much more entertaining read than The People’s Republic.  I couldn’t be happier with the way that it turned out.  I finally--after all these years of wanting to do so-- wrote a book, which makes me really happy, but more importantly we collected and saved all of these recipes that we love!

I'm grateful for a lot of the experiences that living in China has afforded us.  One of the best being that living here has afforded me "time"; time to do things that I've always wanted to do, to further develop personal interests and to identify new ones.  I feel extremely fortunate because I realize that this is an opportunity that few people get in their lives.  Chris will have the same opportunity when we are in the Philippines and he's looking forward to it!

Log 53: La Mian

** Please note that the video, which was previously not working, has been fixed.  You should be able to view it now!

 

The regional cuisines in China are famous worldwide.  Who hasn’t heard or tasted the spiciness of Sichuan (aka Szechuan) cuisine, or the sweet and sour combinations of Guangdong (Canton) cuisine?  While Sichuan cuisine is our most favorite (and it is totally different from the Szechuan cuisine that you get in the United States), one of our other favorites is the lesser known cuisine of the Northwestern provinces of China--  Xinjiang and Gansu.  These provinces are predominantly populated by the Uyghur minority, who make for the majority of the Muslim population in China.  Culturally, they have much more in common with the peoples of Central Asia than the Han Chinese who make up the overwhelming majority of the 1.3 billion people who live here.  Their script is different, their language is different, and of course the food is different. 

One reason for this difference is that they don’t eat pork because they’re Muslim; and pork is the most popular meat throughout the rest of China.  Instead they eat more lamb and beef and they’re well known for their barbecued meats.  Northwestern China is dry and hot, thus dried meats and fruits from this region are famous.  Special drying houses made of bricks, where every other brick is missing to provide adequate ventilation, are used to make one of the region’s most well known agricultural products- raisins.   Because the green seedless grapes are dried inside these houses, the raisins keep their fresh green color and they’re extremely delicious!  The people of this region also use spices that other regions don’t use as often:  cumin, anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, and others. 

One of our favorite dishes is a dish called la mian (pronounced "la mee-yan"), which translates to “pulled noodles”.  It is a dish that has gained popularity throughout the country and has successfully crossed-over into mainstream Chinese culture.  As a result, you can find a la mian restaurant in most of China’s cities, which is great because we eat the stuff at least once a week!

The most popular form of la mian is a soup.  Its base is a rich beef broth to which they add sliced meat, some vegetables, and cooked noodles.  It is similar to Vietnamese pho, but with some different spices.  Chao mian is another dish that we will often opt for if the weather is too hot for soup.  Chao mian translates to “fried noodles” , and it starts with the same pulled noodles that are cooked and then added to a sauce- like spaghetti, but with an entirely different flavor.  We’ve brought every guest that has visited us to our local “Muslim noodles” restaurant.  I’ll remember forever that these noodles were the dinner that Chris, my sister Mary, and I ate on the night of the day the massive earthquake hit Sichuan.  Because of fear of aftershocks and potential for fires, the city shut down all of the gas lines.  Most of the restaurants couldn’t operate, the one exception being the la mian restaurants.  Because the majority of their dishes are noodle-based, and because their noodle and soup pots are usually located near the front of the restaurants and attached to a free-standing propane tank instead of the gas lines, they were able to make their noodles for the crowd of people who lined up for them that night.

Besides the deliciousness of the noodles, the other reason that we bring our visitors to these restaurants is because the process of making the noodles is entertaining to watch.  As the name implies, “pulled” noodles are made by pulling.  Young men, using deft hands and strong arms, are able to turn formless mounds of prepared dough into the most beautiful, delicate, and delicious noodles you can imagine.  They are made fresh to order, and you can watch as your order of noodles is literally “pulled” before your eyes.  I’ve enclosed a video here because the process is something that has to be seen to be truly appreciated. 

We’re really going to miss la mian when we leave China.  We’ll miss the dish itself, but we’ll also miss watching the entertaining process of making the noodles as well as the gracious and friendly la mian vendors who always seem so pleased to see us when we enter their little shops!

Log 52: Happy Birthday China

October 1^st marked the 60^th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.  It was a very big deal here.  To the Chinese, a person’s 60^th birthday is extremely special because it signifies having lived a “full cycle” – which is represented by the 12 zodiac animals that most of us know from Chinese restaurants (e.g., rat, ox, pig, dog, etc.) and the less commonly known five elements of the zodiac – fire, wood, earth, metal and water.  For those mathematically challenged, 12x5=60.  Family members put a lot of effort into celebrating one’s 60^th birthday as it represents a moment of immense pride.  Therefore, it is no surprise that October 1, 2009 – sixty years to the day when Mao Zedong stood on the balcony of the Gate of Heavenly Peace overlooking Tiananmen Square and declared the founding of the PRC – represented an incredibly important day for this nation. 

This year, Guo Qing  Jie (Chinese National Day) and the lunar-calendar based Mid-Autumn Festival overlapped, which combined to give the Chinese people a week off from school and work (and to effectively shut the country down for a while).  Everyone was in a celebratory mood and anticipated the broadcast of the Guo Qing Jie celebrations on TV.  On the morning of October 1^st, we watched the 2+ hour military and civilian parade on TV, which was broadcast live on every channel (and continues to be rebroadcast for our multiple viewing pleasure).  

  

Like the ‘coming-out’ party last year at the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government wanted to put
on a similarly polished show to commemorate this day.  The military parade was impressive and the preparation and practice of the parade participants was immediately apparent.  The military might of the country was equally impressive—television commentators frequently emphasized that the machinery and weaponry was made completely in China.  We thought it was interesting that the parade started in reverse.  President Hu Jintao was driven from Tiananmen Square down the parade to greet the thousands of troops who were standing at order ready to begin the parade.  For each group, he had one of two greetings – one of which was, “Tongzhimen hao,” which means, “Hello, comrades.”  [One interesting side note is that “tongzhimen”, which means “comrade” has been adopted in modern day colloquial Chinese as a term for gay people.]  The President drove to the very end of the parade, stopping at the last group, a group of military women (in red retro-stewardess dresses and white go-go boots), before turning around to head back to the front of the parade.  Every soldier’s head turned in robotic synchrony as the president drove by.  The parade began and the soldiers displayed precise goose-stepping as they passed by the main stage of the parade route.  Amidst all the ground-to-surface missiles and spy planes, one type of amphibious vehicle was highlighted by the television commentator “for its use in combating the United States’ aggression in Korea in the 1950s.”  Hmmmmmmm……interesting. 

The civilian part of the parade followed the military salute and it started with tributes to the main leaders of China since 1949 – Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaopoing, Jiang Zimen and Hu Jintao.  Following the political rhetoric were many floats, each surrounded by hundreds of people performing synchronized routines.  Float themes highlighted the progress made in various aspects of Chinese society over the last 60 years– e.g., agriculture, transportation, and space exploration to name a few.  There was even one float dedicated to “environmental protection” and the one for “energy” was solar powered.  A main theme throughout the day’s celebration was the inclusion and recognition of “the 56 indigenous ethnic minorities” who make up a small percentage of the 1.3 billion Chinese people.  Given the racial riots that occurred in Tibet last year and the riots in Xinjiang this year, it is no surprise that the government would try to emphasize peace and integration during these ceremonies.

During our time in China, we’ve come to expect that these types of events will involve a vast amount of people who you can tell have practiced, practiced and practiced to obtain perfect synchronization in their routines.  The end results are visually stunning.  When I asked one of the 14 year-old kids that I tutor, what she thought of the ceremony, she responded, “I think there are too many Chinese people living in China.”  The vast number of parade participants was a reminder to her and us that 20% of the world’s population lives in China.

 

The parade ended with thousands of adorable Chinese children carrying multi-colored balloons that they released into the sky in front of the main parade stand.  As the balloons flew away, the kids (who represented “the future of the country”) ran towards the viewing platform waving colorful hoops towards their country’s leaders, who warmly greeted them with smiles on their faces. 

In the evening, Tiananmen Square was full again for nighttime performances and fireworks.  The fireworks were stunning and the performances were a spectacle, but at times they blurred the line between “celebration” and “public relations”.  We watched the evening gala for a little while, but after performances of the songs, as translated by CCTV9 (China’s only English TV station), entitled “Xinjiang is a Happy Place” and the Tibet-inspired, “Emancipated Serfs are Happy”, we decided that we had sufficiently celebrated this year’s Chinese National Day. 

 

This was our third and final Guo Qing Jie in China.  It was good to end it all with such pomp and circumstance.  Immediately afterwards, we watched the British movie, “The Boat that Rocked”, which portrayed the story of a group of British people in the late 1960s who challenged their government’s restrictions on the radio airtime of rock-n-roll music by operating a pirate radio station from a boat out in the ocean.  It was an interesting juxtaposition and a reminder that Britain and the United States in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, with their restrictions on music, movies, etc. weren’t all that different from the China of today.

We wish China all the best on its 60^th birthday.  The unity, strength and pride that this nation has developed since 1949 are commendable, especially given the historical context of the last two centuries.  It was only after living here that we learned that from the late 1800s through the 1940s this country has endured an immense amount of crap imposed upon them by foreign countries.  After that, they struggled internally through growing pains that included a civil war and the Cultural Revolution [one should read The Search for Modern China for a better understanding of it all].  As China completes one 60-year cycle and begins another, we wish it continued success in the economic prosperity, poverty reduction and education improvements achieved during its ‘reform and opening’ of the last 30 years.  We also wish all Chinese people and their government peace and harmony both internally and externally as they continue to work toward their goals of a “peaceful and harmonious society”. 

Photos for this blog were borrowed from China Daily, the UK Guardian, the UK Telegraph and boston.com.

Log 51: Hainan Island

It was July, and both Chris and I were desperate for a vacation.  I had just completed my hardest semester yet of studying Chinese (I realize now that it only ever gets more and more difficult….) and Chris was slogging through one of his busiest periods of the year.  Add to this the facts that we hadn’t had a vacation since our Christmas trip to the Philippines and that it had been an exceedingly rainy summer.  It was cloudy and steamy; we hadn’t seen the sun in weeks and we were starting to feel the onset of SADness (Seasonal Affective Disorder).

Our original plan was to head up to Xinjiang.  The sunny, dry, large, far-northwestern province of China where the population is composed mainly of Muslim Uyghur people.  The town of Kashgar was an important stop on the Silk Road, and has the largest weekend open-market in all of Asia.  Xinjiang is one of the few remaining parts of China that we want to visit but haven’t had a chance to yet.  This plan got shot (literally) when inter-racial riots (between Uyghur and Han Chinese) in Urumqi, the provincial capital, created an explosion of violence in towns across the province.  As a result, travel to the region was restricted. 

Alternatively, we had heard that Hainan, which lies south of China’s Guangdong province, east of Vietnam and SW of Hong Kong, is sometimes referred to as “the Hawaii of China”.  It is a relatively big island, populated largely by representatives of the Miao minority (also known as Hmong in Vietnam).  During the winter it is flooded by millions of mainland Chinese looking for a little bit of sun and warmth.  Early August, however, is the height of their off-season.  Flights were cheaper, accommodations were cheaper, and crowds would be minimal.  While doing online research we blundered onto the website of the Boao Inn, an inn run by a Chinese / American couple that promised a B&B experience that we never thought would be possible in China.  As their name implies, the B&B is located in a small town called Boao (famous for the annual Asian Forum meeting that big names like George Bush, Bill Gates and most Asian political leaders have attended), located far away from the crowded cities of Haikou and Sanya. 

Elizabeth, the proprietor of the Boao inn picked us up at the Haikou airport in northern Hainan in the early afternoon and offered to take us by a nearby volcano park.  The park was very nice; beautifully landscaped, with trails that led up to the top of a small volcano and along the rim, providing lookouts to two sub-volcanoes nearby.  This park was an amazing introduction to Hainan Island.  The sun was shining; the vegetation was lush and tropical.  It was hot, probably hotter than it was in Chengdu, but because we were surrounded by trees and there was a nice breeze, it didn’t feel anywhere near as hot as Chengdu had been.  The air was really clean and we commented on how disturbing it was that we could so easily tell the difference.

One other major thing that we noticed was the butterflies.  On our short hike up to the crater and around the rim we must have noticed 15 or so different species in a wide variety of color combinations:  brown and purple, white and orange, brown and blue, black and turquoise, brown and orange…… they were amazing and they were everywhere.

We arrived in Boao later that afternoon.  The cozy four-bedroom inn sat at the end of a quiet beachside road.  A small, winding path along the side of the inn led past a Taoist monastery and out to the beach.  Elizabeth made fruit smoothies for us and we headed upstairs to unpack and take naps.  The first day of our vacation had already provided us with everything that we were looking for, and the amazing dinner that we had at the nearby seaside restaurant (a large place with several large aquariums containing live blowfish, various lobsters, clams of all kinds, and other treasures from the sea…… all there for our potential eating pleasure) where we ordered a local specialty called boao yu “boao fish”- a delicious steamed ocean bass served with a light sauce made of soy-sauce, garlic, and the tangy juice of a small citrus fruit that Filipinos call calamanci.  We slept better that night than eit her of us had slept in a very long time.

Back when I was living in San Diego, I went through a phase when I would wake up early (around sunrise) and head off to the beach for a morning run (followed by coffee and a muffin somewhere along the beach).  It was amazingly cathartic and I had been looking forward to doing the same along the long beach in Boao.  Chris got up with me and together we walked to the ocean and ran north with the ocean waves on our right.  Having lived in DC and now Chengdu for the last 12+ years, I haven’t run on the beach in quite some time.  It’s HARD to run on the beach!  The soft sand (while great for the joints) is energy-sapping and in very little time I was gasping.  I was also very, very happy.

Breakfast was pancakes, bacon and sausage, scrambled eggs, banana bread, fresh fruit, fruit smoothies and coffee.  I honestly don’t think that there is another place in all of China that offers a western-style B&B experience like the little Boao Inn does – each day was a feast of pancakes, grits, oatmeal, French toast, or biscuits with gravy.  After breakfast we decided to walk around town (this is a THREE street town mind you), which of course didn’t take long, so we walked back down to the beach.  We stopped at a small restaurant to order another local specialty chao bing “fried ice-cream”, which isn’t actually “fried”, but is a flash-frozen concoction of sweetened condensed milk, juice and fruit, and topped with nuts.  Could it get any better?  Yes… it could.  We arrived at the beach adjacent an amazing hotel complex, set our stuff under a woven cabana and proceeded to frolic in the waves.  “Frolic” is not a word that use lightly….. or ever for that matter, but you have to understand how badly we needed this vacation and how much a good frolic was in order. 

On our way to a noodle place for dinner we passed by a seafood restaurant in town that had two sea-turtles in their “for the menu” aquariums on display in their front window.  I was both outraged and heartsick to see these turtles in this situation.  We had no intention of eating there, but we stopped to ask the proprietors if they were aware that catching these kinds of turtles and eating them was against the law in China.  We finally asked how much it would cost to buy a turtle alive, in hopes that we could take it back to the ocean to set it free.  The cost was dear….the equivalent of a full year’s tuition.  It was far more than we could afford, but not out of reach of the wealthy Chinese businessmen that come and stay in places like the Shangri La hotel, who might want to impress their clients with a fancy dinner.  When we returned to the Inn we found that Elizabeth had baked an apple pie.  Wonderful!  I needed a good dessert to get my mind off of those turtles and that night I said a little “please free the turtles” prayer before drifting off to sleep.   

The next day Elizabeth suggested that we take a boat ride upriver to visit a small traditional village and then down to the delta to see a long strip of land known as the “jade belt”.  Elizabeth came along in order to introduce the tour to her newly hired assistant “Rainy”, which was great because Rainy spoke the local dialect and was able to help us communicate with the villagers.  The boat rides, the walk through the village, and the dinner at the riverside “floating” restaurant were a great way to spend the afternoon/evening.  Because it was late Elizabeth offered to drive Rainy home and in the small village of Shitou (which means “stone”) we visited with her uncle, a beetle nut farmer and his family, who treated us to tea and conversation, showed us his pet python, and sent us home with several coconuts as a parting gift.  These kinds of opportunities, to spend quality time with locals, don’t often present themselves on vacations.  It was wonderful.

The next day, after an early breakfast, we took the four-hour bus down to Sanya, the big tourist destination on Hainan island where the overwhelming majority of visitors to the island end up staying.   Sanya is famous for its natural sandy bays, which reminded both of us of Hawaii.  Dadonghai Bay actually reminded us of a weird combination of Waikiki and the Jersey shore.  The scenery was beautiful and tropical, while the boardwalk was out-of-control with vendors selling “beach” paraphernalia, and the beaches were crowded with tourists (which made us wonder what the place must look like during high season)!  There were two things about Dadonghai that we found particularly fascinating.  One was the inordinate number of Russian tourists and their impact on the culture here.  Russian Cyrillic signs were everywhere, as were large Russian women with over-dyed hair and large Russian men with their undersized speedos!  It was all very disturbing.  The second (equally disturbing) thing was all of the Chinese tour-group members in their matchy-matchy “Hawaiian print” ensembles.  If there ever was an ideal example of the Chinese “group-think” mentality, this is surely it.  Practically every Chinese couple that we saw was wearing matching shorts and shirts.  I can imagine that after one couple buys a set, the group-think mentality takes over and everyone else thinks to themselves, “Wow, they’re really cool looking in their matching outfits…. We need to get some too.”

After a full day down in Sanya we took the bus back to Boao to find that Elizabeth had made a carrot cake!!!  We were so glad that we had decided to stay in Boao.  Zero crowds, empty beaches, and carrot cake!  Their pet bird, a tame Asian mynah named “Freddy” was out of his cage and flying around the house.  He landed on our heads a few times, trying to get to our cake!

On Friday we had a light breakfast because we had been invited to accompany Rechard and Elizabeth to visit the home of a local wealthy businessman friend of theirs who had invited them over for lunch.  This businessman is originally from a small rural village near Boao, but has made his fortune in China’s new free market economy and lives most of the year near Shanghai.  He makes annual pilgrimages back home which managed to coincide with our stay in Boao.  It was interesting, this experience of hanging out with the filthy rich in a quaint little village composed mainly of his poor relations that still farmed the rice paddies and grew beetle nut for a living.  It was even more interesting talking to his son, a reasonably normal kid, for someone who can get pretty much anything he wants and attends a prestigious private school in Hangzhou, one of the most beautiful old-towns in China.  He had yet to develop the same sense of value for the simple life and didn’t understand why his father dragged the family down to this village every year.  How could he?  He’s rich and sheltered and doesn’t know much about the “real world”.  He dreams of studying overseas one day where I imagine he’s likely got get a nice slap of reality…..

After lunch we made our way to the beach where we napped on the sand, getting up occasionally to cool off in the ocean.  We weren’t super hungry by the time dinner-time rolled around so we strolled up the beach for several kilometers until we found a beachside restaurant with gorgeous views of the ocean from their open deck.  We had dinner there and made our way back to the Boao Inn, walking along the darkened nighttime beach.  It was all very nice.

We got up early to play what would be our lat set of tennis on Hainan at a nearby hotel.  It was truly like having our own private courts.  The day’s agenda was simple, as we planned to tag along with Elizabeth as she did errands in Boao and the neighboring regional capital.  She needed to replenish her groceries at the local markets and along the way we hit some tourist sites including an old pagoda and the famous coconut factory.  The coconut factory was a real treat…. Literally!  Given Boao’s tropical climate, coconuts and their many products are a big industry in Boao.  This is all highlighted at the Coconut Factory, a complex that combines both production and retail of all things coconut related:   candies, milk, etc.  The afternoon, per usual, was spent at the beach relaxing.  That evening, our last in Boao, we went for a foot massage at the local parlor.

Relaxing on the beach, foot massages, amazing breakfasts, ocean-side meals…. Indeed everything about this vacation was exactly what we were looking for and what was exactly what we needed after a particularly busy and hectic spring and early summer.  This blog was written several months after the fact.  It is cold and cloudy in Chengdu now, but remembering Hainan, with its warm weather and warm people makes us very glad that we had decided to go there and will help us cope with the long and gray winter ahead of us.