These pictures will tell a very funny story tommorow.... I am planning on spending the entire day drinking green tea and writing some of the wonderful stories that have made this trip to China such a wonderful experience.
Many thanks to those of you gave me a call this thanksgiving and the notes of appreciation for the site-- it is always so nice that people are reading this material.
I will be uploading much information tommorow afternoon.... Mean while, enjoy these pictures and the story below....

Happy Thanksgiving!!!
















FROM CHINA DAILY TODAY (See if you can spot the propoganda)

Commentary: Cover-up can't hide murky water truth(China Daily)Updated: 2005-11-25 06:00
With confirmation by the State Environmental Protection Administration that the Songhua River has been contaminated by benzene and nitrobenzene, action by Harbin municipal government has proven to be timely and necessary.
As the contaminated swathe of water approached the capital city of Heilongjiang Province, local residents finally heard an apology from neighbouring Jilin Province, where an explosion in a chemical plant belonging to Jilin Petrochemical Corporation on November 13 caused the problem.
A delegation headed by Jiao Zhengzhong, vice-governor of Jilin Province and Party secretary of the city of Jilin where the chemical plant is located, came to Harbin on Wednesday to apologize to local residents. The delegation has brought with it 71 tons of mineral water to atone for the inconvenience the pollution has brought to Harbin residents.
Zeng Yukang, director of Daqing Petroleum Administration, also in the delegation, apologized on behalf of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to Harbin's residents.
Both Jilin Petrochemical Corporation and Daqing Petroleum Administration are under the auspice of CNPC.
However, the Jilin corporation denied the pollution of river water three days ago. It said that the explosion produced only carbon dioxide and water, which would definitely cause no pollution to the water of the Songhua River, according to a report by China Business News on Tuesday.
It also promised it had a sewage treatment plant and it did not discharge any untreated water into the river, the report said.
In the same report, an anonymous source from the Jilin provincial government revealed that the river was indeed contaminated by a toxic spill from the explosion.
People cannot help but doubt that the Jilin corporation was trying to cover up the truth. A local report says the benzene and nitrobenzene from the explosion were washed down into the river by the water from the fire engines.
This has further deepened people's suspicion that the corporation would have known about the pollution immediately after the explosion.
A spokesman from Heilongjiang Environmental Protection Bureau said at a news conference on Wednesday that on November 20, the level of benzene and nitrobenzene was checked at the border between the two provinces, and found to be much higher than the State standard.
Even then, the authorities of the corporation bluntly denied that the river water had been contaminated.
A spokesman from the State Environmental Protection Administration said yesterday at a news conference that Jilin Province and Jilin Petrochemical Corporation had adopted timely measures to stop the toxic spill from being discharged into the river immediately after the explosion.
This shows that the corporation knew very clearly about the contamination and its possible result but still wanted to keep the secret to itself.
Leaders from the Jilin provincial government and Daqing Petroleum Administration apologized for the contamination of river water and for the inconvenience and losses the pollution has inflicted on Harbin's residents. But they never apologized for the hiding of truth.
We do not know what is behind the cover-up. It might be because they were afraid that they would have to pay money for the losses the pollution has incurred in Harbin, and it might be because they were afraid of losing face.
But the fact is they have brought shame on themselves by covering up the truth.
We sincerely hope that no cover-up of a similar nature occurs again in the future. Read more!

Thanksgiving--another crazy day in China

To my shock and amazement, today was actually a great thanksgiving. Its over at about the same that every other thanksgiving is over, about 900pm, I am tired from all the food and activity that the day had brought forth.
As per usual with Chinese festivities, I wasn't made aware that anything special was going to be happening until just after 10 this morning, when one of the cute chinese girls calls me and asks me if I can attend a special dinner and performance. I had known that the finals of the University singing/lipsynching to the worst English songs known to man was scheduled, but I had no idea that it would hold what we were in store for.
I will upload some pics tommorow, but the food was horrid at first. I ate most of a frog before I finally asked what it was, and the fish, which I took a picture of, was made in my honor, so I was forced to eat it. Not good-as you will see.
Then, I was told about 430 this afternoon, that I was going to be performing in the middle of the show, so again, I performed a SONG in front of 2,500 people.
The song, thank god, was my choice.
I chose, The Scientist, by Coldplay.
I had three bouquets of flowers thrown to me for my excellant job in performance.
Pics tommorow.... Read more!

Thanksgiving--rememberances

In honor of today's Thanksgiving, I thought it might be a good idea to go back in time one year ago today and remember what will always live in my memory as the strangest, yet most personal thanksgiving ever.
Although this journal entry, which I have printed below is just a small example of how I felt that day, looking back on the memory it was an exciting time. One thing about the chinese that always interested me more than anything else was how they managed to get as excited as young children over the western holidays with which they had so little familiarity.
Today is bound to be equally as special as it is Lili's first thanksgiving as well and I think she, like the Chinese, is equally excited to see whats in store, to feel that holiday cheer that comes with all of these winter like holidays.
I had a lot more to say in the previous entry that was swallowed up by cyberspace when the computer decided to go into hybernation and not save the information.... but this brief moment is somehow more intimate than the last entry.

Wherever you are in the world, I hope you take a moment to be thankful for something.
And now, a moment from a year ago today....

Thanksgiving 2005.....


To my shock and amazement, today was actually a great thanksgiving. Its over at about the same that every other thanksgiving is over, about 900pm, I am tired from all the food and activity that the day had brought forth.
As per usual with Chinese festivities, I wasn't made aware that anything special was going to be happening until just after 10 this morning, when one of the cute chinese girls calls me and asks me if I can attend a special dinner and performance. I had known that the finals of the University singing/lipsynching to the worst English songs known to man was scheduled, but I had no idea that it would hold what we were in store for.
I will upload some pics tommorow, but the food was horrid at first. I ate most of a frog before I finally asked what it was, and the fish, which I took a picture of, was made in my honor, so I was forced to eat it. Not good-as you will see.
Then, I was told about 430 this afternoon, that I was going to be performing in the middle of the show, so again, I performed a SONG in front of 2,500 people.
The song, thank god, was my choice.
I chose, The Scientist, by Coldplay.
I had three bouquets of flowers thrown to me for my excellant job in performance.
Pics tommorow.... Read more!

While you are enjoying your lovely meal....

Although this might not look like your traditional thanksgiving grub, it was pretty tasty. This is what I got when I ordered good old Spaghetti with Meat Sauce!!! Lovely, I know.
Woof Woof--too bad this isnt a husky, but then again... enough of them were killed last weekend....

Maybe a nice weekend of Stuffed Dog instead of a turkey?

Ahhhh, the BoBoGow marketplace, where all the Chinese women will go to make the preparations for their thanksgiving feast--mmmm delicious!!! --Oh wait, THE CHINESE DON'T CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING!!
No chance for a turkey--they aren't here in China--but there is plenty of HAM--if you dare!!!


Another roadside attraction-- fresh Corn on the cob with something that looks like Butter--except its oil with sugar?


I did, however, find fresh strawberries this morning for sale at the market. Its the end of November and we are still getting fresh strawberries---!!! Read more!

It has certainly been awhile since I have posted a normal prose based entry, so I thought I would do this before going to bed.
Winter has arrived, so my mood has changed slightly. Winter here is close to the same temperature that we have in Seattle, except there are virtually no clouds and just a little rain over the last couple of days. The mountain out the back of my house is beckoning to me--I have been up about 1/4 of the way the other day and had to turn back because the day was quickly becoming the night.
We are nearing the end of my first term of instruction-- the term will offically end on the 15th of January, but the intruction will end at the end of the year according to our calender. This will be nice, but I wanted to be out of school in the middle of February, when the weather would be just a little warmer. I will more than likely head off to Hainan and the south end for the first couple of weeks and then go up to beiijing if I feel like it--well see. I might begin my big trip near Mongolia and head to Xi'an and then over to Beijing and then south down to Shanghai and head down the coast of China to check it out.. I'll have to see.
Things are good, all in all. The book about China is actually taking its shape now and I am excited to be writing more than I ever have before. It is a nice feeling to finally feel like I am in the groove of writing. It is coming so easily these days, mostly because of the time that I have available to get all my busy work done and I still manage to have some energy left. A nice feeling overall.

I am going to miss thanksgiving. Read more!

The European Commission has just announced an agreement
whereby English will be the official language of the European
Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded
that English spelling had some room for improvement and
has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known
as "Euro-English.

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c".
Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.
The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k".
This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less
letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year
when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f".
This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be
expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are
possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double
letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e"
in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps
such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords
kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl
riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis
and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza.
Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer,
ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepul. Read more!

American Culture Lecture

More than 2,000 people in attendance-- and the guy that took the pictures sucks. So there arent many of them, but here they are.



Read more!

Chinese Wedding

I had the pleasure of attending a Chinese wedding, in which, to my surprise, I was the guest of honor. Having spent time with this family previously, I was excited to be in their company again for such a joyous occasion.

This picture was taken outside of the main area where the event was held, at my friend Julian's grandparents house in the Countryside. These were guests of the wedding, a fun group of men who loved to follow me around chanting the Hello's!!! and NICE TO MEET YOU's!! throughout the cold and wet afternoon.
The man on my back insisted on jumping on my back as the picture was being taken. It was quite funny.

The two grandfathers of the party. The elder men of the house. To my surprise, I would be seated at the most honored table in their home during the wedding reception. Julian was asked not to sit at the table, but I insisted because he was my translator!!!








I did not get to kill the pig as planned, I had to teach lessons when they decided to do it, but here is one of them, in all their glory. A nice yummy pig particle sitting on hooks for god knows how long. They cooked two entire pigs for the wedding--and most of it was delicious--although I did have some pig liver that looked just like steak--which was tolerable, but pig liver is just not so appealing to me... :)




MMMMMM, pork dishes!!! Lovely Chinese food, that to my shock and surprise, didnt make me ill at all, but then again it might have been the Bijao-Homemade Chinese rice wine-- think of everclear with a pineapple flavor--everytime a dish is served you must toast the dish for good luck, so the Bi-jo was flowing like the Yangtze.







One of my favorite shots-- the bride and groom entering the reception with literally thousands of firecrackers going off all over the place--an intense display --the smoke and gunpowder from the display almost made me gag several times. The clouds were so thick you couldn't see the ground in front of you, but I just kept following the red umbrella!






The happy couple in their new bedroom at Grandmas house. I am not sure if they are going to be living here or not, but it was very interesting to see. They recieved as a gift a new bedroom set complete with a refrigerator (a big deal here in the countryside). It was pretty cool.














Oh yeah, my favorite shot. There is another one before this where his mouth is closed and he is really smiling huge, it is cute, but this one, this one will make me feel great anytime I am concerned about my teeth. This is not an uncommon site in China--bad teeth are everywhere. This mans teeth were simply amazing--I would be one grumpy bastard if I had that much mouth cancer, but this guy was just awesome.




Ahhhh, Bijo at the head table!!! This is the head of the house, the elder grandfather of the clan. To drink with him is a wonderful honor.











A fun random shot. The women in the green is the happiest woman I have ever met. Capturing her smile on film is truly as beautiful as the highest peaks of Guilin.


Well, that's enough for now... If you haven't already, check out the other pics of Guilin. I will be spending the next couple of days grading more than 200 papers on the Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and doing some consulting work with the students on their final projects.

Winter has finally hit here in Chenzhou, as you might be able to tell. That was the only thing that was so unfortunate about the whole wedding, the weather sucked. I wore my suit and a simple Patagonia parka and was freezing most of the afternoon--most of the area where we were was outside and there was no heat except for the fires used to cook the food--just amazing to me. When Joe Wadden said that it will be good to live so close to the bone, I now know what he meant!!! Read more!

I had the pleasure of having a dumpling party this past Saturday night, which, as you can see, involved the making of hundreds of dumplings!!!
It was an exciting time and many dumplings were to be had by all!!
In all, we made close to 500 dumplings, and only ate about three hundred, so there are about 200 dumplings sitting in my freezer right now!
We made pork and onion, pork and mushroom, beef and mashed potato with cumin (I finally found cumin, so life is a little better now), and various veggie samplers. Delicious and good for your health!!!


This is a shot from the main centre in Yangshou, where all the westerners hang out. It was such a beautiful weekend and an equally beautiful place as well...!


Another monkey shot for Jacobe... These monkeys were just hanging out at the Famous (everything is famous in China) Seven Stars Park. The monkeys paid no attention to you unless you annoyed them or gave them peanuts. This first shot was when I moved a little too quickly and the monkey king shot me a threatning look.... The other shot is the monkeys on the peanut watch. Notice the younger one on the back end-- So cute, but nasty at the same time!!!
















Anyway, I am off to a traditional Chinese wedding today. I am scheduled to help kill the pig as a sign of good luck. I hope it isn't too big-I hear they can get to be quite difficult to kill once they figure out that they are the guest of honor. The wedding is going to last over two days--I'll try to take a lot of pictures.... Read more!

While you were watching the Cougs lose another game, I was in Guilin.... The most beautiful city in China, according to the Chinese....

Read more!

Halloween

I almost forgot Halloween was last week. It was on a monday, which is my day to teach Literature and my students quickly pointed out that today was Halloween. They asked me how I was going to celebrate it and the perfect thing sprang into my mind: I'll show a scary movie for the students!!
They all gasp in unison, all 56 of them. They began to mutter to each other about what I had just said, you could see the wheels churning in their head.
"What will you show, Mr. Tim?"
I had just picked up a copy of Frankenstein from the creators of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on DVD, so I thought, why not? We were studying Mary Shelley's chilling tale in class as an Audiobook for the Halloween Holiday, so it seemed fitting.
Throughout the day, I kept thinking that the movie wasn't Halloweenie enough, these kids would be let down if the movie sucked and my rep would be on the line for delivering good quality entertainment to the Chinese college kids.
Word spread faster than herpes on homecoming weekend that I was showing a scary Halloween movie. People sent me text messages of excitement and concern--and the place only holds 1,000 students to see the film, so people were trying to get VIP into the showing. I laughed heartily and said a firm No.
I decided to add another film, Ring 2, to the lineup. It scared me in a creepy kind of way--not to mention that the main spooky character kind of looks like she is Asain. (This would be a constant commentary for days after the showing--"If she is Asain, she must be Japanese, because Chinese girls are never that ugly!!" --One of my lovely nationalist students.
First off, more than 2,000 kids showed up to see the film. There were injuries. People were crushed getting into the doors. It was like David Beckham and Yao Ming were presenting the film themselves.
I arrived fashionably late, my cell phone ringing frantically from the other students who were afraid of the large crowd that had gathered outside--they needed guidance. Upon arrival, I couldn't believe the amount of students. It was just a few hours ago that I had even thought about showing a film and suddenly there were thousands of kids outside the classroom wanting to see what scary really was.
The first one, Frankenstein basically sucks. Don't waste your time. The students, as well as myself, were pissed off at the ending of the film, which isnt really an ending at all, its almost like they just ran out of film. Annoying. Students told me that the film was not a horror movie, but rather a science fiction film. Haha, I thought--just wait until you see the next one.
Only about 50 students left when that film was over. The rest of them were strangely quiet as the film began. The best part of the entire night, one of the most memorable moments I will ever have of China, was what happened in the next ten minutes. The film opens with a frightening scene where the scary girl Xiomara, comes out of the television to attack the person that has the curse. When she popped out of the televison on the screen, about 200 students schrieked loudly and RAN for the doors. When I say RAN, I mean they ran like their own lives depended on it. It was pure insanity. They were so scared of this women that they did a full sprint out of the place and straight to their dormitories. I have not seen many things funnier in my life.
Throughout the rest of the film, the remaining students tried to hold out as long as they could--but every scene that was a little scary had the students moving quickly out of the theatre and after awhile I decided to give chase after them as they left--which really made for a good time. I chased after two students who literally fell into the squat position and almost peed their pants from being so scared-- it was AWESOME!
The kids talked about the film for days--some of my students were really mad at me because they couldn't sleep the entire night.
"Mr. Tim, I am very angry with you today. Each moment that my eyes closed last night, the girl would come into my dreams and wake me up. This is not a good movie!"
You can't ask for much more than that!!
Most of the students loved it. One of them entered class the following day in a xiomara outfit, no shoes and he hair combed over her head--she looked terrifying... and when some students saw her, they ran out of the other door and down the hall and did not return to class for several minutes.... Read more!

Shorter, man...

Okay, so I'll start making the entries shorter.
My ability to tell the story is increasing, and with that, so is my prose. You are seeing the first draft of material, which is totally unedited, except for the occasional spell check, when I remember to check it.
I will begin to post more short stories so that you can just skim through it as I realize this is just a blog and you, my loyal readers, want more on the short end instead of waiting for a longer entry. I am still waiting for the pictures to be uploaded, it should happen at some point this weekend. It isn't my camera, so I don't have control over it. Read more!

I still have not been able to upload the pictures from Yangshou and Guilin as I did not take them with my own camera and I am waiting for Clare to come and set it up so that I can actually load them for you....
But I will continue with the stories..
Clare and I decided after much deliberation that it made more sense to just call the guy at the travel agency in the train station and pay the overemphasis price. We had try to find one of the open tourist kiosks throughout the town, but we were met with very little success. We found several of the kiosks, but they were all closed in the middle of a friday afternoon--which reminded me once again that this is China. So we called him back and I attempted to bargain with him on the price, knowing that 250rmb is more than we should have to pay, especially because it is no longer the tourist season and he offered me a rate of just 200rmb, but made it sound like this route was by far the worst way to do it and for the extra 50rmb, we could do everything on our own and not have to pay attention to the tour groups and such--which was more appealing to me, so I agreed and booked us on the 250rmb cruise, slightly regretting it. I also inquired about a massage because the hard beds of China has really began to take a toll on my bones and I heard that there were good massage places in Guilin. Again, I got a little screwed on this endeavors as I got booked into a massage place at the nicest hotel in Guilin. It was 100rmb for the massage, which is still cheap in western standards, but if I were to tell a Chinese person about this price, they would shriek at the high rate. Overall, it was a nice massage, except you keep your clothes on, which I was a little surprised by, but it made me feel more comfortable about the whole procedure.
It was a good massage, with her massaging everything except my groin, including my robust buttocks, which made me giggle like a little school girl. She also jumped on top of my back, digging her knees into my back and massaging my body--quite an amazing maneuver.
When it was done, amazingly enough, the woman nodded at my compliments and then began following me saying, TIP! TIP! TIP!, which is something you never, ever, never hear in China. It was the strangest thing. She did a good job, but 100rmb is a lot of money-but I decided to oblige the request, since it is so rare. I stopped and pulled out some money and she saw a 50 note and pointed to it-- TIP TIP! and I shook my head. No way was I giving another 50note, but I did settle on a 20 and went on my way.
The next morning, we awoke at 5:15 to take the shuttle down to the pier and go on the boat ride outside of town. It was scheduled as a 2.5 hour long boat ride and the car was scheduled to pick us up at 6am sharp. He arrived about 10 minutes later than he was expected and we could immediately tell that he knew he was late. He raced through the empty streets of Guilin and got onto the highway in mere minutes. Clare became worried when he got on the freeway because we didn't know exactly where the boat trip started, but we assumed it was in the downtown area. Not true. We were in the car for about 30 minutes while it flew down the highway, trying to get to the destination by 7am, which we made just in time. We were quickly shuffled out of the car and escorted to the boat. We were in the middle of farm country, which basically equated to the middle of nowhere. As we got onto the boat, we quickly noticed that we were the only ones on the boat and the driver of the boat quickly got the engines started and we were off. Immediately, I knew we had made the right decision. Although the process seemed shady, we were now sitting on a long tour boat, the only tourists of the river. We had our own personal moments on the Li Jang river. It was an amazing hour, cruising through the low river. taking in the beautiful scenery--hundreds of small, ragged peaks, all in dense green colors lined the distance, reflecting on the calmness of the river. It was a beautifully odd combination of both serenity and chaos. The river, still and calm as we rode through it, clearer than I thought any river could really be in China. The peaks, small in size, but rugged and fierce--something major happened here not so long ago in the timeliness of the earth and it was violent.
The scale of the mountain range reminds me of my admiration of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, just off the rugged landscape of the Yellowstone Plateau, where I spent some of my most formative summers. These were much different, both in size and distance. The Tetons are a huge range of mountains overlooking the Snake River, while this smaller mountain of the Li Jang river, go for miles upon miles, every turn in the riverbed presents a new series of mountains. I took Clares cameras and spent most of the time on the outside deck on the loud, rusty metal ship that took us through the low river channels.
Eventually, our solo journey came to an end as we met up with the other tour boats, which we about and hour and fifteen minutes ahead of us. We stopped at an island together and we were told to get on another boat, which was equipped with Chinese tourists who instantly got very excited when the learned that two Westerners would be joining their cruise. The next 45 minutes of the cruise was spent stopping periodically at different places to basically waste time as we were close to the end, but the tour stated that it was 2.5 hours, so they have to make it seem like your getting every minutes worth.
I felt like we got our moneys worth--as I said yesterday, the thing you need to remember in China is that it really doesn't matter how much you paid, as long as you feel okay about it. You can afford to get ripped off on occasion in China.

The boat ride does end directly in Yangshou, but just outside of a small village, where there are tour buses that will either take you back to Guilin or to visit Yangshou. Every westerner for some reason simply loves to visit Yangshou, which is also known as Yangers. It is about a 30 minutes ride from where you get dropped off. We were told that it was easy to get a bus ride from the town to Yangshou, but as we arrived, we discovered that this was not entirely the case. We had done more of a budgeted trip, and they didn't cut us a deal on a bus, so we had to attempt to figure out transport. Luckily, a couple from Belgium were in the same boat as we were (pun intended). For whatever reason, their tour bus has just left without them, so they needed to fend for it on their own. We quickly found a cab driver that offered to take us to Yangshou for 50rmb each, which we bargained with her down to 30rmb for all of us. This is another example how too little is never too little.
In the car ride over, we discovered that the couple lives in Brussels, works for the main airline in Brussels, he is a pilot, she is a flight attendant. Because of their jobs, they have traveled all over the world--going to every country on the planet. The woman was a frequent flyer to Africa--this week she will go to Rwanda and live for 10 days. It was interesting to get their take on the different travels, especially Africa.
Upon arrival in Yangshou, we decided to have an early lunch with each other. They took us to a western restaurant that was really an American restaurant. Bacon, Eggs, Pancakes, Burgers, Lasagna, garlic bread--good food and not too expensive.
There was not much discussion while we were enjoying our food--both Clare and I were simply amazed at how delicious everything was--you tend to forget that things taste differently than Chinese food!
The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping and bargaining for different things. I spent a lot more money than I had budgeted for the trip, but I was able to justify it because I had spent so little since my arrival here in China. Overall, I have spent less than 600usd since I have arrived here, plus my monthly salary. I had not really purchased many of the things that I wanted to make sure I bought before leaving China, and I found all of it in Yangshou.
The biggest splurge was on a Chess set that when I saw it, I knew I needed to have it. The original price for the set was 850rmb, which was just ridiculous. Without much effort, I was able to get the price down to a mere 200 rmb and the final sales price was 180rmb. I will send a picture of it in the near future.
Yangshou serves as a good base camp location for going and checking out much of the local area. It is only 50 rmb to rent a motorbike for the afternoon, and the bike tours are very famous. There are many listings on-line for guide services, which usually include a tasty Chinese lunch. We didn't do any of these adventures as I know I will be there again sometime soon.

here's a good link to Yangshou: http://www.yangers.com/ Read more!

Yangshou Part 1

I can imagine another place when I travel in China. I look at my cell phone and the date tells me we are in November, but as the sweat drips from my nose from the humid day, this is weather I have never experienced at this time of the year. This seems like the longest summer of my life and after living in the Pacific Northwest for the last several years, I was long due for weather like this.
As we set off to see some of the most glorious land that exists on this vast earth, we had no idea what we are in for. The weather service, which is always wrong in varying degrees said that there would be morning rain and showers and the outlook for the entire weekend in Guilin was not promising. Still, we decided that we needed more than anything to get out of this space, to go somewhere else and experience the subtle differences in China that each province has.
Guilin is an almost perfect weekend from where we are located. It is a mere 7 hours by train to the city and it is fairly cheap to go into the city, just 75rmb for a seat and about 130 for a hard sleeper. We lucked out in getting a hard sleeper, which I must say is not as bad as rumoured. I will take a picture of them next time I go on a sleeper trip, which will be soon. I left my camera here on accident, so the photo opps were limited (which is especially funny because this trip had the most beautiful scenery of all the places that I have been as of yet).
Sleepers are set up in two ways, 6 to a space, 3 of each side--top, middle and lower. They are spacious enough were someone of my size can sleep in them and they are amazingly comfortable for what they are and what they cost. Although they are double the price of the cheap seats, it is a better more secure way to travel for foreigners and anything over 5 hours, a sleeper should be considered.
Our train left Chenzhou at 11:15, so it was pretty much lights out as we arrived on the train. It was relaxing to get onto the train, get situated and then the lights were turned out and I found most people asleep on the train, so I drink a little water and promptly passed out to the sounds of Radiohead. (Thanks Fargo)
Sleeping on the train works quite well for some. My travelling companion, Clair, doesnt have any problems in crashing out within half an hour of the train departing. I however have already developed an annoying habit of waking up everytime the train stops--and there are a lot of stops. I hope to cure myself of this issue in the near future.
We arrived in Guilin in the early morning, just after 7 am, and the sun was just starting to show itself. As the sun began to shine through the cloudline, we were slightly disapointed in the scenery of the city from where we were. It looked like many of the other Chinese cities that we have seen so many times before this--poor shanty shacks leading into the almost overnight revitalization--highrise, modern apartment houses and condo's. It seemed almost surreal to see these striking differences once again. For some reason I had it engrained in my head that this was not going to be the same as the other cities. Perhaps the Chinese would attempt to preserve their most treasured smaller city to the architecture that was shared with the timeless hills, but as I arrived I thought my thoughts would be proven wrong.
There certainly were let downs by the design of the outskirts of the city, but the parts where they want the tourists to stay is a pleasent mix of the new and the old coming together, but almost in a showcased, tourist kind of way.
As we pulled into the station, I was excited by the prospect of being in another place, experiencing another sampling of the different culutral landscape that makes China such an overwhelming place to visit but slightly disapointed by what I had witnessed thus far.
This would be the last moment of my unfavorable attitude toward such a wonderful and beautiful city. From the moment we stepped off of the train, I was caught in a constantly good mood with the beauty of the area surrounding the city.
Guilin is a shopping city and the various tourist kiosks and bureaus around the city certainly document that. Being the tourists that we are, we were captured by the first person that could find us, an Asain women that seemed to speak fairly good english, which always catches me off guard. I know now that this should always raise a question mark, but when I am on vacation, I don't really mind spending a little extra money if it is worth it. Clair and I immediatly began our discussion on what we should do about a hotel (get one now and drop our things or head out into the city and see where we want to center ourselves or rent a bed in a hostel--so many choices! While discussing what we should do, we are greeted with a
"Hello! How are you today, are you looking for a hotel, boat trip to Yangshou?"
This was a double check mark, which made us almost immediate suckers. She led us into what appeared to be a city run tourist bureau and we were greeted by the boss immediatly upon entering. We saw a couple of other people with big backpacks on and this set my mind to ease--but I didnt want to do anything with these people--just get some information on the various places to stay and head out and find it on our own, but it didnt work out that way. I tried to get a little information and move on our way, but Clare kept talking to the guy and soon enough we had a hotel that fit right in our price range and he quoted the ballpark figure of what the boat trip that we wanted to take would cost (and it matched the guidebook, so it seemed it might be a good enough deal, but I felt that since he got us the hotel room, that was probably good enough for now --no need to book the cruise at the same time as the hotel, so we got his card and went on our way to discover Guilin. He took us to the hotel- (Which is always an indicator that you might have paid too much for the ticket. If they are going to get a commision for the sale, they must present you to the hotel and their price is based on that price.)
The thing about pricing in China is always the same-there is always a cheaper price than what you pay because of your skin color and social status. If you let this bother you, you will not have as good of a time as if you just don't worry about it. To a Chinese person, the difference between 125rmb and 200rmb is a lot of money--to a westerner, it is less than 10 bucks and to pay 20usd for a decent hotel room is a good deal regardless. The key thing is that whenever you meet a Chinese person that is in the tourist business or a Chinese person interested in the goods you purchased or how much you spend, they will always tell you you paid too much for things but the reality is that they don't do much better in most positions. There is a price that is negotiable and its fairly easy to learn this key information when coming to China. Nothing has a set price, but there is always a price that they know they can get for the room or the trinket and they are not going to let it go for any less--but they will charge you more. The key is to play along and have fun with it. Don't be afraid to ever walk away from something because if they really want to get rid of it, they will chase you down and if you really want it, you can always go back and get a better price out of them.
I tell you this now, but I admittly didnt follow these very simple directions at all. When I arrive from a long travel, I want to find a place to put my things and get on with my travelling. I don't want to try and find the perfect room, just something to drop off my stuff and when I come back I can sleep in it. If you are spending too much time in a nice hotel, stay home, save your money and buy a hot tub or something fun. Don't waste your money on an expensive hotel--its just another step away from the real Chinese experiece!!!
So, even though we paid too much for the hotel and a couple of other things--we still had an awesome day in Guilin. We were quick to discover how awesome things were inside of the city--there is easily enough to do in that town for at least a week, if not longer.
Tommorow I will talk more about the adventure--incluiding the personalized 2.5 hour boat trip though the most scenic countryside I have ever seen (and I lived in Yellowstone for two summers--this pretty much tops it), feeding free roaming monkey peanuts and my first American breakfast in over two months...
Wednesday will be the much anticipated pictures, which are nothing short of mindblowing.... Read more!

Guilin Recovery

I am sorry about the lack of postings over the last week. I have been very busy, giving my lecture in front of 3,000 students as well as picking up another oral english class and travelling to Guilin and Yanghshou, some of the most beautiful countryside in the world. Think the Grand Tetons times 100. It is truly an amazing place and I have much to write about, but it is 4am here in China and I have just arrived back in Chenzhou and will be teaching in the morning, so look for more postings in the next couple of days. I am hoping that the pictures turn out as good as I think they will. Read more!

Bird Flu is nothing to balk at.....

Prudent or Paranoid?
By Melinda Liu
Newsweek
Updated: 2:06 p.m. ET Oct. 26, 2005
Oct. 26, 2005 - The deadly H5N1 virus is creeping closer to China’s teeming cities—and to me in Beijing. On Wednesday, Chinese media revealed yet another outbreak of avian influenza, the third report in little more than a week. Over the summer H5N1 killed thousands of birds in four outbreaks, but they were all in the remote hinterland of western China, in the Central Asian enclave of Xinjiang or near the Tibetan plateau.


Last week, though, the virus hit closer to home. Thousands of chickens were declared dead in Inner Mongolia, less than a day’s drive from Beijing. Then came Tuesday’s report of dead geese in Anhui province, on the bustling east coast. Wednesday’s news was an H5N1 outbreak among birds in Hunan, a populous southern province.
China has yet to report any human deaths due to bird flu. But a lot of people are betting the fast-mutating H5N1 virus, which is endemic in China, will find a way to spread between humans here. I’m not taking any chances. My husband and I have purchased more than $600 worth of Tamiflu already, enough to treat the entire NEWSWEEK staff in Beijing. Tamiflu is the antiviral medication that experts tell me might lessen the severity of avian influenza in humans, if taken within 48 hours of exposure.
Some of my friends think I’m crazy to stock up on a drug that may or may not help me survive a flu pandemic that may or may not be able to spread among people here. On the other hand, I sat next to a Western television journalist at dinner recently who said he’d purchased thousands of dollars worth of Tamiflu, and was having more shipped in from abroad. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong pharmacies, Tamiflu and another antiviral drug, Relenza, are flying off the shelves.
When my husband picked up a couple more 10-pill courses of Tamiflu yesterday, the pharmacist took pains to tell him the pills should be taken only after exposure to the H5N1 virus, or when exposure is imminent. Some entirely healthy people are popping Tamiflu already, the pharmacist said.
This is not good. If a healthy person has taken Tamiflu over a period of time, and then becomes infected with influenza, there’s a better than 10 percent chance of the virus becoming resistant to the antiviral. If the person is later exposed to avian influenza, resulting in genetic mutation, the result could be an especially malevolent flu virus resistant to Tamiflu.
Instead, the treatment helped alter H5N1 genetically to create a more virulent, amantadine-resistant strain of the virus. “We’re more and more concerned that [amantadine] might not be that useful any longer,” says World Health Organization (WHO) representative Henk Bekedam in Beijing. That’s why so much hope is now pinned on Tamiflu and Relenza, even though they’re much scarcer and more expensive.

It’s not like I relish the thought of living in or near what many people think will be the Ground Zero of bird flu. I’m not sure I have much choice. If the virus begins human-to-human transmission, border crossings around the world would start slamming shut—between nations, between provinces, between cities, maybe even between neighborhoods. A few days ago a Chinese health ministry official declared his nation would seal its borders if even a single case of human-to-human H5N1 transmission is found.
That sent jitters throughout the expat community here, and on Tuesday Foreign Ministry officials tried to calm such concerns by calling the report “inaccurate.” Still, don’t bet on open skies and porous borders for long—except maybe for the migrating wildfowl who currently function as an airborne Influenza Express. If and when this thing becomes a pandemic, hopping on a plane to fly to the West may not be an option for me. What government will welcome an arriving planeload of passengers from China, the place where experts believe the H5N1 virus was born?
The whole question of shutting down borders would become irrelevant very quickly at any rate. WHO’s Dr. Julie Hall in Beijing tells me one Western government recently war-gamed what would happen if it closed its borders to slow the advance of a bird flu pandemic. “It delayed things by just three and a half days,” she says. “If there’s a large cluster [of human deaths] many countries will close their borders, but that may not do much good.” Hall gave China high marks for improving its surveillance system in the wake of the 2003 SARS disaster, when authorities tried to cover up the severity of the crisis that eventually sickened 8,000 people worldwide and left 770 of them dead. But a flu pandemic will be much worse than SARS. She warns against complacency: “We can’t just say, ‘Ah, we did OK during SARS so we’ll be all right in the face of a flu pandemic'.”
The pandemic crisis wouldn’t restrict itself to overflowing hospitals and dying medical staff. Widescale absenteeism, illness and death could disrupt everything from food supplies and transportation to garbage collection and mortuary services. SARS was a medical problem, albeit a serious one. A flu pandemic could tear the fabric of societies and economies around the world.

Take the problem of maintaining social order. Even without a pandemic on their hands, Chinese leaders are obsessed with keeping the lid on escalating mass protests. I’m sure that’s why domestic Chinese media is under orders to downplay—or outright ignore—news of the recent H5N1 outbreaks. There’s a name for this tactic, nei jing wai song, meaning the government takes the problem seriously but isn’t conveying its worries to the public. To tell it like it is “could easily lead to panic,” says Zhong Dajun of the nongovernmental Dajun Economy Research Center. “It would be terrible.”
The fact is, many Chinese are hopping mad already about what they perceive to be unsatisfactory health services. In three quarters of Chinese hospitals, angry patients or their relatives have actually beaten doctors and staff to retaliate for shoddy treatment or exorbitant fees. One disgruntled patient stabbed a well-known doctor to death at a clinic in Fuzhou—and many Netizens who commented on the murder in Internet chat rooms wound up siding with the killer. Hospitals have hired bodyguards to fend off such attacks. Even Health Minister Gao Qiang recently admitted that doctor-patient relations in China are “tense” and unlikely to get better anytime soon. So how much worse would things get when Chinese citizens discover that hospitals don’t have enough respirators to go around? Or that some authorities have been trying to cover up the severity of the crisis? Or that cadres have been hoarding Tamiflu and now stocks have run out?
As Hall puts it: “the only thing that spreads faster than viruses is panic.” To plan for both the medical and nonmedical challenges ahead, I asked my husband, a retired Australian diplomat, to help draft a bird flu contingency and business continuity plan for the NEWSWEEK bureau. He conducted research on the Web and consulted friends in the business of corporate security—who themselves were busy crafting bird flu contingency plans for their clients.
Now I have a meaty 17-page business continuity scheme for the office, and I’ve briefed my staff on the plan. It explains everything from the basics of personal hygiene to how to take Tamiflu properly; from how we might work from home to the procedures we’ll use to decide when to stop working altogether—and start focusing on sheer survival.
I’ve started stockpiling canned tuna, dried noodles and other staples. The contingency plan calls for storing a couple month’s worth of food. Two weeks ago, about the time we bought our first batch of Tamiflu, my husband and I also got inoculated for routine seasonal flu. Nobody wants to become the “mixing vessel” in which H5N1 and human flu viruses mix and match.
All of this has become the target of some good-humored ribbing from friends. This whole bird flu thing is overblown, they say. After all, H5N1 has been around in China for years—maybe much longer—and so far only birds are dying on the mainland. They point to the latest news reports speculating that Southeast Asia, which has seen the most human deaths, will wind up being the front line of any human pandemic. I hope they’re right and that I'm just being paranoid. Read more!

Are you Chicken?

Just in case you forgot, I am in Hunan province. And if this doesnt sound like the virus is spreading, well, I would speculate its only a matter of time. I do, however, believe that it has crossed over, but like the SARS incident, the Chinese government are not going to admit until they realize they can't stop it alone.

Time will (cough cough) tell.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/28/content_488413.htm
Hunan girl's death 'not linked to bird'By Wang Zhenghua and Tao Li (China Daily)Updated: 2005-10-28 05:41
Health authorities yesterday refused to link the death of a 12-year-old girl who had flu-like symptoms with the bird-flu outbreak in Central China's Hunan Province.
Initial tests turned out negative for the virus, but the result has to be confirmed, some media reports said yesterday.
A health worker vaccinates a chicken in Xiangtan, Central China's Hunan Province Thursday October 27, 2005. [Xinhua]
The report of the girl's death came the same day that three people on a French island off Africa were being tested for suspected bird flu - the first suspected human cases outside Asia.
A health official with Xiangtan County - the third place in China to report an outbreak caused by the H5N1 strain in a week - said He Yin's death on October 17 could be a "coincidence."
The girl and her 9-year-old brother He Junyao, natives of Wantang Village, fell ill after the family ate a chicken that died of an unspecified disease earlier this month.
"The province sent experts to investigate," the official told China Daily. "But the results of laboratory tests didn't show the girl died of bird-flu infection."
Without disclosing what exactly caused the girl's death, the official - who did not want to be identified - said his department dealt with the incident "according to procedures" and the situation in the county is "well under control."
No other person has been reported ill in the village.
Both the health and foreign ministries said yesterday that no human infection has been reported in China so far.
"The Chinese Government has already taken ... decisive measures to prevent bird flu and to share information with the international community," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a regular news briefing yesterday.
Earlier, Premier Wen Jiabao said the government "was taking effective measures" to prevent the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.
Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu urged local governments to take strict measures to curb the disease when he visited farms in Southwest China's Chongqing on Wednesday.
French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said of the people being tested in the Indian Ocean island of Reunion: "The three travelled to Thailand and visited a bird zoo where they had come into contact with birds.
"Initial tests have been done there and these came out positive," he said.
In Hunan, the dead girl's father, He Tieguang, told China Daily yesterday that the family cooked the bird after two dozen chickens and ducks began dying of an unknown disease on October 6.
"In the next few days, my girl became weak and pale," said the farmer. The family took the girl to the local hospital only when she had a fever and cough.
After being shifted to several hospitals, she died in the intensive care unit of the children's hospital in Changsha, the provincial capital.
"Doctors said my girl died from lung infection, as X-rays showed her lungs were totally infected," the father said.
His son, who started showing flu-like symptoms only after the girl's death, was quarantined in the same hospital yesterday. The father said the boy was in a stable condition.
Following the outbreak, health workers sterilized the whole village and regularly tested the family's temperatures, the father said.
The poor farmer spent more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) on his children's treatment; and the hospital said he still owed 6,000 yuan (US$740).
A World Health Organization (WHO) official said yesterday that humans show pneumonia-like symptoms after they are infected with the bird-flu virus.
"But there's no evidence that humans can get infected through the air or eating properly cooked chicken," Alphaluck Bhatiasevi of the WHO Beijing Office said. Read more!

I have been quite busy and bored at the same time these last couple of days as winter begins to make its move on the China that I have grown to love. I will be adding more in the next couple of days..

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/traveloutdoors/2002541729_webchinablogindex11.html
The times has managed to send a reporter out here from Washington and although I am not a big fan of what she has been writing (its like suburbanites for China), she was nice enough to put my comments up on her comments page, which is here....
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/traveloutdoors/2002550703_webchinablogresponse11.html

She is discovering a lot of things that I am coming to terms with--her latest posting says the token statement here in China: "This is China." Until you have been here, you really have no idea what this really means but it serves as a good reference point when things go astry as they always seem to do here.

I will be heading to Guilin next week and she stayed there for several days--have a look at some of her pictures. I am sure my experience will be much different than hers.... time will tell. Read more!

The Warming Trend

The lecture has been rescheduled for next week in order to allow for sufficent time to heal from this cold that I have aquired. It isn't too bad of a cold, but I didnt want to do a two hour lecture on American Culture outside of my normal classtime, so they decided to put it off for a week.

I am hopped up on meds and reading the DaVinci Code, but just wanted to invite you to check out the new "My Morning Jacket" album, which sounds just awesome. Check them out at www.mymorningjacket.com . If you do a web search, you will see that they just did a special on NPR's All Music Considered, which I am listening to right now and it is just awesome. I am quite impressed. If you don't know that much about them, your dumb and lame.
They are playing at the showbox in November for those of you in Seattle--make it a culture day and go check them out. They are a really interesting bunch of musicians and specialists in the art of reverb....

Things here are okay. Winter is setting in with a quickness, but the guy came in this afternoon and turned my air conditioner into a heater, so I am satisfied.

More later. Read more!

I will more than likely not be updating this site for the next couple of days. I have been asked by the University to prepare a lecture for the student body on American Culture--a lecture that will take place on Wednesday afternoon and there will be more than 2,000 students present at the lecture.
They will pay me quite well for the lecture and I am looking forward to it, but I am putting together a powerpoint presentation for the lecture, so I'll be working on it for the next few days. If you have any suggestions of things to include, please email me at timothyhogg@gmail.com

--I also have a cold. The weather has has changed significantly. Read more!