Qian Shan

The Liaoning Province is not a huge tourist destination but one place that the people here are very proud of is Qian Shan (Thousand Mountain) National Park. Altogether it is 125 sq. kilometers, 44 sq. kilometers (about 27 miles) of which is planned for sightseeing. It is a place sacred to both Buddhists and Taoists. They say that, "There is no peak that is not marvelous, no rock that is not precipitous, no temple that is not quaint, nor any place that is not quiet." I'm not so sure I agree with the quiet part but the drone of insects was a welcome change to the sounds of construction and traffic that I usually listen to.

When I arrived at the park, one of the first things I passed was a station with little open-air carts like the things Disneyworld uses to transport people from the parking lots. I was so excited to be in nature, however, that I opted to walk. I was given a map (albeit a rough one) but I chose to mostly ignore it. I was in my element! Tons of places to explore and all of them spectacular! So I wanted to just wander wherever struck my fancy.

I passed a couple of old ladies foraging in the woods. This place, one of the only undeveloped places I've seen, is a source of the more "wild" plants such as herbs for medicines.

I had only been walking for about ten or fifteen minutes when I became aware that I was being followed. The guy wasn't being particularly secretive about following me but when I made it apparent that I had noticed he tried to speak to me but I couldn't understand what he was saying. I called my assistant and let him translate over the phone and he said that because I was a foreigner and I was there alone (and of course the Olympics were cited), this guy was supposed to follow me around for my protection. I was really annoyed by this because it is difficult to be immersed in the grandeur of the mountains and the serenity of nature when someone is tailing you. I told Ricky to tell the guy to go away (in nicer terms) but Ricky said he couldn't.

I lost him soon enough when I veered off the main road onto a side path that began climbing higher and higher. I wasn't sure where I was headed and it turns out I was beginning the climb of my life--up the highest peak in the park. There were stone stairs that I was climbing but don't think it was any easier because of it! The stairs kept getting narrower and narrower and more and more steep. In some places they were no more than four inches wide and probably ten to twelve inches high. Sometimes the stairs were carved into the mountain itself and sometimes they gave up on stairs altogether and simply carved footholds in the rock. I'm not sure how high I climbed but it was definitely challenging and exhilarating. It turns out that there were two ways up the peak and I had taken the more difficult of the two (which I probably would have chosen anyway). When I finally reached the top, the views were absolutely breathtaking. The drama of the rising and falling of the thousand mountains is the kind of landscape China is known for. It was incredible to see the temples perched on the ledges like eagle's nests.

There are over thirteen temple sights in the park and I only got to visit some but the ones that I did see were very impressive. All of them were wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bright paint, murals, carvings, statues, candles, flowers, incense, bells, offerings, and more. People came to the temples to pray and pay respects. The air was filled with the heavy smell of burning incense and some of the incense sticks were so large they looked more like very large fireworks.

After climbing back down from the first mountain, I decided to take the cableway up another one, which again offered some magnificent views. From this location there was a mountain top walk, which I decided to take. It was two miles of stairs. Yes, my knees and my muscles are feeling it today.

I feel like I finally got a chance to see some of what China has to offer so I get some satisfaction out of that. Qian Shan was a breath of fresh air on so many levels. I will be returning to teaching tomorrow but, of course, I don't know what the schedule is!

To Market, To Market

This post is long overdue. One of the most fascinating places here, the market, is also one of the most notable as a symbol of town-culture in China. The market is a street, maybe a half mile long, with shops on either side and running down the center is the farmer's expo.

I did not record everything I wanted to from the market mostly because I was feeling extremely self-conscious. I am conspicuous enought but when I have a camera in my hands... I decided to add commentary to the movie rather than talk as I was recording.

The Other School

A while back, I decided I wanted to make a little extra money so I began looking for a second job. All of the teachers I know here (not that I know many) taught extra classes at other schools as free-lance jobs or taught private lessons. Most of the teaching opportunities, however, were in Anshan, which is a two-hour bus ride from Taian so I was not really keen to commit myself to making that trip every weekend.

My opportunity finally came a little over a month ago when I negotiated with a private language and music school to teach some classes for them. It was a bit of a rocky start since they failed to inform me that they had schools throughout the Liaoning Province that they wanted me to teach at and I got a little upset on the first day when I was ushered into a car by people I didn't know and who didn't speak English and taken to a village. Since then, however, things have been ironed out and I've really enjoyed the classes I've done for them. The students are younger than my high school students. Their ages range from six to about eleven or twelve and their bright-eyed excitement in class is a breath of fresh air and a teacher's dream. They have a desire to learn that can only be found in places where school is unimportant if not denied entirely.

A couple of weeks ago, this school had a "party", as they called it (I would call it a promotional concert), here in Taian. It was sort of a celebration of the Olympics. They asked me to sing as part of the show and I agreed, if for no other reason than to show them my appreciation for giving me my second job. I had a little trouble coming up with a song. I rejected a suggestion that I sing "Fat Bottom Girls" by Queen (thanks anyway, Ben) and I didn't want to sing something they knew already or I would be singing "My Heart Will Go On". In the end, I settled on "Sunrise" by Norah Jones. I had a karaoke version for my iPod, which I was told, they could plug into the speakers for me.

I enjoyed the concert because I got to see the children play some traditional instruments including a hulusi. This instrument has three bamboo flutes that pass through a gourd. They also played a dizi, which is another type of flute, and the guzheng, the plucked zither. I've included a short video of some of the performances. The last bit is the school's teachers. You can hear in the video how awful the sound was. You know that screechy noise when you have the volume turned up past the capacity of your speakers? Well, multiply it for how loud things were. What was even worse was that when it was my turn, I found that the speakers for the music projected on the stage but the speaker for the microphone did not so I couldn't hear myself. It was terrible, and I only know because I gave my camera to a friend. I will NOT be posting that performance, however, I will add a captured image. And just so you can appreciate the magnitude of this embarrasment, I've included a shot of the crowd. I'm pretty sure half of Taian was there.

Unfortunately, a representative of the high school called me and said that I shouldn't be teaching for this other school. I've tried to understand why, since as I've said, other teachers have extra classes, and they only reason I can get is that it has something to do with the Olympics. I am being told that it is a governmental decision that all classes must stop for the Olympics but I'm not sure I believe it...I think there is something else going on. I'm still investigating this and I hope we can get it all straightened out.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

I am standing at the half-way point. Five months down, five more to go (not including the 15 days in January). Oh, yes, I've been keeping track, but then again, that is just the type of person I am (planner/organizer/time conscious).

People sometimes ask me if I'm having fun in China. I usually answer that my idea of "fun" is good food, good wine, and good conversation, all of which are difficult to find here (the food is not bad but all of the food has the same basic ingredients so after five months...). That being said, I don't hate it. I enjoy teaching my students and they enjoy my classes and I always value new experiences. The perspective I am gaining by living in China is life-altering. I believe more people should live in a different country and experience how other people live.

Before coming here, I tried not to create too much of an image of what living in China would be like. The biggest surprises for me come from the isolation. Taian is not a small town in numbers but it is a small town in resources. This fact has been driven home since I adopted Tuza. According to all of the resources I've checked, hay is a vital element in a rabbit's diet. I have searched high and low for hay here and can't find any. I even checked in Anshan, which has been a God-send when I've needed something. Things became even more desperate when Tuza started becoming ill four or five days ago. I'm not sure what the source of his illness was but he was drooling and not eating. I took him to an animal hospital (an eight-foot by sixteen-foot room that was cluttered, filthy, and stank of urine) but I was not confident in the vet's ability to help Tuza since rabbits are rarely, if ever, kept as pets here. She was, however, an extremely nice person who is helping my rabbit for free. All I had to do was take a few pictures. It has been difficult with the communication barrier but I've been taking him in to see her twice a day for some injections and for the past two days she has given me a medication that I mix with water and hand-feed him with a needle-less syringe every half-hour. It has been extremely hard on me. I've not had him long but I'm very attached to him. I have never been so frustrated with being here than I feel now since I know in the States I would have the resources to help him...or at least have him put to sleep so he would not have to suffer.

The situation with Tuza brings the second hardest thing about being in China into sharp relief: loneliness. I've never been a social butterfly and I often sought solitude in the past but this has been a rather extreme exercise in self-reliance. Being surrounded by people with no one to talk to is like being adrift on the ocean with nothing to drink. All in all, I think I've held up exceptionally well in this circumstance. At least I'm not talking to a volleyball named Wilson yet.

There are still many things I feel like I have yet to do here in China. Many of them center around traveling but that is not as easy as it sounds. People in China (or at least around here) rarely travel. When I was investigating how much it would cost me to get to Beijing and the best way to go (train or bus) I asked four or five of my classes and only one student in all of these classes (each with 60 or more students) had been to China's capital city and that was when she was six or so!

Although I am still learning new words, I've pretty much given up on the hopes of becoming fluent (or even proficient) in Mandarin. I don't feel too bad about it though. Oskar, a teacher in Anshan from London, just married one of the Chinese-English teachers and said he is all set to stay in China. He has been here for a couple years and his Chinese is still poor (his wife's English is excellent--she lived in Ireland for a few years).

At any rate, I think the next five months will be easier since I have learned how to negotiate my way through Chinese culture, geography, politics, social interactions, and so forth. Thanks to all of you who are following me on this journey and sharing your encouragement. It really means a lot to me and it helps enormously!