Back home

Houston, Mississippi, and Shanghai, China, are unbelievably different places.

Despite my undying love for China and everything (ok, almost everything) Chinese, I am happy to spend some time at home. I am happy to see my family and friends. I am happy to smell clean, autumn air. I am happy to drive my car. I am happy to eat Southern food. I am happy to start classes next semester at Ole Miss.

But I'm sad, too. I'm sad to leave Shanghai. I'm sad to leave my new friends who made last semester great. I'm sad to be this far away from my host family, who in 4 short months became a real family to me. I'm sad to leave a city with unlimited opportunities, only to come back to a place where I sometimes feel I've exhausted all of the educational and career options available to me.

Nonetheless, I'm glad to be back. My home was definitely a sight for sore eyes after the concrete forests of Shanghai.


Now, it's time to go eat. I'm writing a column about life in China for my community newspaper, so I'll post that when it's published.

Until then,

Matthew

Goodbye Shanghai

In 9 hours, I will be on a plane headed for Detroit.

I've had a great six months in China, but I'm looking forward to spending some time back home in Mississippi.

Wish me luck!

M

A Roots & Shoots Christmas and a Chinese Wedding

Thursday, I went to the German Consulate's annual Christmas Market to sell trees for Roots and Shoots' Million Tree Project. The consulate invited 2 NGOs to sell their products - R&S and Felt, an organization that works with physically and mentally challenged Chinese people to make felt jewelry, the proceeds of which go directly back to them. In total, I raised 1700 RMB, or enough to buy 68 trees, which is pretty good for three hours of work. Actually, I got to meet a lot of interesting people, sample the gluehwein, and have some authentic German sausages and pretzels, so I'm not sure if calling it "work" is really fair...


I've been sick all weekend, so I didn't do anything other than study for next week's finals and rest until Saturday. That night, I went with my tutor Ding Xiong-fei to a traditional Chinese wedding. I didn't have a chance to take any pictures, but if I had to use one word to describe it, I'd say it was 热闹 (rènɑo adj. lively).

Unlike American weddings, which usually have a somber ceremony followed by a reception, the Chinese combine the two. Guests are invited to a huge dining hall, where food is served and they can watch the couple get married while eating. An emcee hosts the service, and it can take on a game show-like appeal. I have to admit, I prefer the American style. But you can't argue that Chinese weddings are a lot of fun.

After the wedding, I went to Xiong-fei's cousin's house to play Ma Jiang. I won once (because I was being coached by "the expert"). Turns out Ma Jiang in China is a lot different than American style...

Thanksiving and the weekend that ensued...

Thanksgiving was great. CIEE sponsored a buffet-style dinner at the Mayfair Hotel at Zhongshan Park, and we had baked turkey, honey ham, mashed potatoes, baked macaroni, grilled langoustines, pumpkin and apple pie, bread pudding and other American T-giving staples. The spread also included various raw fishes, Chinese dumplings and egg drop soup, but we're in China, so I forgive the hotel.

The food was delicious. I ate myself to oblivion, and went back to the dorm to celebrate Thanksgiving in style (10 people sitting around a dorm room). I couldn't actually go out, because (thanks CIEE!) I had to leave to re-apply for my visa at 7:45 the next morning. Got that taken care of though, so now I'm done with that.

My host family was invited, and it was a nice break to sit down with friends at a good, American-style dinner and not have to do anything other than talk and eat (my two favorite hobbies).



Friday was a good day. Some Ole Miss friends came in from Nanjing, and we went to the Boxing Cat for delicious food yet again (it may or may not be my third time to go this week).

Afterward, we went to Zeal Club. It was a lot of fun, and I got to hang out with my friends from home and my friends from Shanghai.



It's been so nice to spend this holiday with both new and old friends. This is the first time I've celebrated Thanksgiving without my family, and it's really demonstrated the importance of tradition.

This weekend has been great, though, and I'm excited to finish the semester off on a high note.

16 days!

M

Best/Worst Vacation Ever

Looking back on the past week has made me appreciate Shanghai more than ever. Although there were some trying times (see below), I think everyone on this trip grew a lot closer. Plus, our stories are funnier than the kids who went to Beijing and Hong Kong.

I'll start where I left off last time...

After two nights in the most boring place on the face of the planet - Ejina County, Inner Mongolia - we left at 6:30 AM to take a 6.5 hour bus ride back to Jiayuguan so we could catch a 17ish hour train to Xi'an. Around 7:30, our bus broke down on the side of the rode. Apparently, our oil had frozen in the -10 ° C weather, and we needed some more number 20 oil. Guess what Ejina County doesn't keep stocked? Number 20 oil.

We spent over an hour on a freezing bus waiting on our incompetent tour guide to fix the sitch. She decided that it would be best to hire taxis to drive us six hours to Jiayuguan. RMB 800 (per cab - we had five) and 4 hours later, we were in Jiayuguan. Along the way, we stopped in a nuclear test field/secret Chinese military base to use the bathroom, drove 80 miles and hour through a sandstorm, ran off the rode a few (read: many, many, many) times, and complained like there was no tomorrow. Only after safely reaching the train station in Jiayuguan did Teacher Li let us know that he had absolutely no idea who our drivers were and that they easily could have killed us/taken us for ransom. He said something to the effect of "They could have been playing Ma Jiang the night before, drinking a lot, and got a phone call saying 'Hey, you wanna make 500 yuan? Ok!'"

Train ride was great, mainly because I don't remember it. I took the recommended dosage of NyQuil (for like a 600 pound man) and had a peaceful night's sleep.

When we finally got to Xi'an, it started snowing. I have to admit Xi'an is beautiful in the snow, but it's really inconvenient when you're trying to walk around in it. The first day (right after getting off the train), we showered, ate, and went to see a few sites around the city, including the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Shanxi History Museum and a mosque (China says it's a mosque; IMHO it's just an excuse to get tourists over to the souvenir stalls).

Here's the Bell Tower at night in the snow. Breathtaking in real life, blurry in my picture.


That night was tragic for many reasons. We had dinner at a really famous dumpling restaurant that was delicious. Thanks 小人 for suggesting it.

Then we went back to the hotel, got ready to go out, and off we went. Turns out, you need your passport to go anywhere in Xi'an. So after traipsing around in the snow with wet feet and an inappropriately scant amount of clothing, I was mad.

When I'm angry, my Chinese gets really fluent. Sadly, this did not convince various bouncers that I am, in fact, Chinese and that my father is the mayor of Shanghai, despite the uncanny resemblance.

The next day, we went to visit the famous Terra Cotta Army or 兵马俑 in Chinese. I've seen the best preserved Terra Cotta Army soldiers and horses in various museums before, but the sheer number of these things is breathtaking, and it's hard to comprehend the manpower and resources used to make them all.


After spending a few hours there (we played in the snow for almost an hour right outside the exhibition halls), we went around Xi'an. Since it's been almost two weeks since I got back, my memory is kind of faded, but you're not missing out on much because of it. Don't get me wrong; I really enjoyed Xi'an and definitely hope to go back one day, but 90% of China's most famous sites look the same in every city.

For example, we went to another pagoda...


...and another temple...


...and another shopping street...



Gotcha! The last one is from Shanghai :) But we did go to a shopping street that looks exactly like that. I bought my mythical Chinese flying horse 飞马 there.

Srsly tho, every place in China has its own history, but they're all so similar and intertwined, sometimes it seems like maybe there are just a lot of tourists traps.

The next day, we climbed Mt. Hua or 华山, China's most dangerous mountain. We climbed it in the icy snow. It's probably the closest I've ever come to dying, although death on that mountain would have been beautiful.


We took the cable cars up, which was scary/awesome.

In China, a lot of couples have their names engraved on a lock, tie a red ribbon to it, and "protect their marriage" by locking it to a chain on the top of random mountains. Weird? A little. Really beautiful? No doubt about it.


This is me at one of the peaks. We couldn't go to the highest one because we for sure would have died. We could have gone to the closer one that's supposed to be the most beautiful, but my laziness got the best of me, and I just sat down at a little cafe (not really a cafe, but whatever) and enjoyed the stunning views.


These are the steps we were climbing. I will reiterate this once more: I almost died. Obviously I didn't, but I could have.



OVERVIEW: The trip, although we complained the entire time, was really fun. Looking back, we all see that we got to experience things that most people living in or visiting China don't get to see - real China. Sure, places like Shanghai, Beijing and even Qingdao serve as great representatives of new China, but it's places like Ejina County, Inner Mongolia, and Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, that make up the bulk of both China's land mass and population. The big coastal cities show a pretty face for the rest of the world, but if you dig a little deeper, you see that it's a gilded surface that's hiding a completely different world - a world that has not benefited nearly as much from globalization and China's newfound "power" as it should. Western China isn't immune to globalization (Americanization), though, as evidenced by the McDonald's we found in Jiayuguan and Dunhuang (which, if you'll remember, are two very important cities in both Chinese and international history as related to trade along the Silk Road). But I'll let someone else decide if that's a good or bad thing...

CIEE is sponsoring a Thanksgiving celebration Thursday at the Mayfair Hotel at Zhong-shan Park! Aunt Pan and Uncle Zhou are also going.

Until then,

Matthew

Vacation Day 3-ish

I've lost track of time on this vacation. Much like our bus rides, the Gobi Desert just goes and goes and goes for miles, but the Gobi (戈壁滩) offers some pretty cool, albeit obviously staged scenic/historic sites.

But first, three more pictures from yesterday, all courtesy of Lisa He.


Us jumping at Crescent Moon Lake, Dunhuang.


Matthew (the) Archer


Camel ride #2

So today...

First, we went to see where the Mongolians live who don't partake in this Chinese ritual of faux tourisme. Because of a variety of factors (overgrazing, industrialization, increased energy usage, pollution, etc.) the farmers in the area are losing the little bit of arable land that they had to begin with, which translates to even more poverty and hardships.


After that, the bus driver dropped us off in the middle of the desert. Srsly. The middle of the desert. We ran around for a while, and then got back on the bus, bringing a pretty large portion of the Gobi back with us via our shoes.


Lunch was the yooj, some mediocre Chinese dishes with mantou bread (馒头) that's really good when dipped in the sauces.

Turns out Ejina County (or whatever it's called) has some pretty famous places. The Black City (黑城), the Red City (红城) and the Dead Populus Diversifolia Forest (怪树林). Despite the fake pottery and horse bones scattered around for what I can only suppose was dramatic effect, the Black City (pictured below) was the most striking of the three, at least in terms of Chinese-ness. It was really interesting to think about, as Teacher Li put it, the rise and fall of civilizations around the world. The Black City wasn't immune to falling, as you can see from these pictures. The Buddhist Towers in the foreground of the first picture, as well as the mosque in the last picture, have been renovated/completely rebuilt, but I think the walls of the city are legit Xixia-era.


After that, we went to the Dead Forest, which is China's way of telling people that environmentalism is important. The sign said something along the lines of "The dead poplar trees a like dead soldiers on the frontier...We need to be environmentally conscious." While that's obviously paraphrased quite a bit, it's true. And China's right (what?!). We need to step it up.


Finally, we got to the Red City, which ended up being a small square room with no roof. It was less than impressive, definitely not as cool as the Black City.



So tonight, we were looking for something to do. We found some rando Chinese man celebrating his birthday at a KTV place. Commence fun. :)


20+ hours of travel by train and bus tomorrow. :(

Update from Xi'an (if I live through tomorrow)

M

Vacation

So we've been on the bus a lot for the past few days...

But the time off the bus has been pretty fun.

Saturday, we went to Mogao Caves 莫高窟. We couldn't take pictures inside the caves, so I've posted the Wikipedia link above.

My friend Jen snuck this picture of the "tallest Buddha in China."


After that, we went to Crescent Moon Lake oasis.


This was where one of the emperor's concubines (or someone) lived in the summer. The lake used to be a lot deeper, but the steel factories that China has built everywhere in the region have made the Gobi desert even dryer than it already was.


Ole Miss!


I got sand in my shoes...


Camels!

Today, we went to the westernmost fort of the Great Wall, which is called Jiayu Pass or 嘉峪关 in Chinese.





Now, we're in some random county (Ejina?) in Inner Mongolia. It's hours away from EVERYTHING and there is nothing to do at all. We'll be in Xi'an in two days.

Until then,

M

"Matthew on Camel" and "Fort," copyright 2009 Lisa He. The others, copyright 2009 Jen Hirsch.

What I miss

My family 我的家人


My friends 我的朋友







Southern food 南方菜


Fall in Mississippi 密西西比的秋天


Ole Miss 密西西比大学


---
With all that said, I am really enjoying my time in Shanghai and the other parts of China I've visited. The people I've met are awesome, and I wouldn't trade the past four months for anything. But the closer I get to December 16, the happier I am to see everything that I mentioned above. As my mom reminded me this morning via text message: 42 days!

(This post brought to you by boredom and "American-style" chicken that Aunt Pan cooked for me)

M

Halloween Weekend

Halloween Weekend has been so much fun this year in Shanghai.

CIEE hosted a river cruise for us on Friday night. My host mama was also invited, as was my tutor Ding Xiong-fei (丁雄飞), and I think they both really enjoyed it.


Me and one of my Chinese instructors, Teacher Xie (谢老师)


Me and Aunt Pan


This is my tutor Ding Xiong-fei. He's an exceptional writer, and even though he's only a sophomore at ECNU, he's already garnered a lot of attention and respect from the graduate level faculty, who in effect decide who will or won't be China's next great literary masters. He's sent me some of his writings, so I've posted an excerpt here for those of you who can read Chinese. This is from an essay titled 最爱女人.

女人有两样东西是要命的，一是眸子，二则为声音。没有男人能够抵抗来自眼角眉梢的诱惑，即使聪明的男人知道那很坏很幻，尽管他口口声声说那是点缀，他还是没有丝毫迟疑地被勾引。而同从脸色晴朗的想入非非有本质不同，声音应该是女人生命力的意象，一旦女人的声音唤起了男人属于原始性的东西，那么女人的声音就被男人彻底承受了，将男人最实在地屈服了。

Anyway, after the boat ride, I was pretty tired, so I went back home and started my history paper (1,500 words, due tomorrow, I still have 1,300 to go).

Saturday, I went costume shopping. After narrowing down the choices to Roman god or Robin Hood, I decided that "Steal from the rich and give to the needy" is a lot better catchphrase than something in Latin, so I ended up going as Robin Hood.




Our group had some pretty interesting costumes. From left: nurse, ninja, Lady Gaga, cavewoman, devil, cowgirl, Robin Hood (me), Wolverine, something with antennae and wings, a Roman goddess, and the guy on the floor is Tinkerbell.

Fun night.

Anyway, now it's back to work on this history paper.

OCTOBER 24

Today is one of the most important days that we've spent and will spend in recent and coming years. October 24 symbolizes over 150 countries coming together to tell our leaders that we want something great to come out of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December.

The International Day of Climate Action was organized by 350.org. Please please please check it out and do something today. It doesn't matter how big or small it is, doing something is what matters.

As for me, I visited Fenfa Primary School for the children of migrant workers living in Shanghai to teach the kids about environmentalism.


Climate change is real, and it's a big deal. If we don't do something about it right now, it's not going to be good (read: it's going to get much much worse).