China Surprises

April 3, 2014June 3, 20161 Comment

Location: Fuzhou and Jian’ou, Fujian Province, China

This past week was a truly wonderful week for K and I in China. We had the opportunity to travel to Fuzhou, and we were greeted with two marvelous surprises while on our journey. One was the arrival of some of our closest friends to the country. The other was that we were nominated for the Liebster award from another blogger in the WordPress community (wanderinfish.com– check him out!). As we had originally established this blog only as a means of further communication with friends and family back home, we are thrilled at how much positive support and feedback we have received through this platform, and are greatly considering expanding and diversifying our efforts.

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Shanghai- The Megalopolis

March 15, 2014June 3, 2016Leave a comment

Location: Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China

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Shanghai is a new city by Chinese standards, which means that it’s about a hundred years old. It only started its outlandish growth in the past 30 years, and is now the largest city in the world, second to Lagos, Nigeria. Al Gore’s fantastic nonfiction tome (but possibly secretly a dystopian fiction story) The Future depicts those two cities sprawling to the point that they outclass most small European countries in GDP, pollution, and population density. It’s been rigorously planned by the Party, to the point that they have a scale model of the entire metropolitan area despite a good portion of it not being built yet. You can see this at the Architecture Museum, a fantastic place to see the history of the city, but also the party rhetoric and its inevitable glorious, harmonious future. Never mind the smog.

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Xi’an- The Ancient Place

March 8, 2014June 3, 20163 Comments

Location: Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, China
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The only location we visited that could tell you more about the history of China in one glance than Beijing is Xi’an. We only spent 3 days here, and they flew by. Though it is large, the city of 9 million seems almost quaint in comparison to the other megalopolises, and the people were kind as well as knowledgable about the immense amount of artifacts contained within the city’s walls.

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Beijing- The Forbidden City

March 1, 2014June 3, 20161 Comment

Location: Peking, Beijing Municipality, China

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How can you describe a city that’s–by all accounts–the face of one of the largest countries in the world and one of the oldest continuous capitals? Beijing is a place of many paradoxes, of rapid growth and intense political power, but also reminders of the way things used to be. It’s three thousand years old and has seen all kinds of changes, both backwards and forwards. It has opulent palaces and historical edifices that are legendary across the world, but also is one of the most modern cities in China.

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Harbin-City of Ice

February 21, 2014June 3, 20164 Comments

Location: Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China

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Despite being the first city in our series of travels, we knew the least about Harbin. I added it to our itinerary after reading an article claiming the city as a can’t-miss spot for winter tourism in China and the host of the greatest winter festival in the entire world. Those are such bold words, it was just too tempting not to see it with my own eyes. After looking at photographs online, and discovering that this life-size frozen playground was only available from January 5-February 5 annually, I became obsessed. This would be our only chance. You can judge by our pictures below, but it’s safe to say, the city did not disappoint.

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Year of the Horse 2014

January 31, 2014June 6, 20162 Comments

Location: Jian’ou, Fujian Province, China

Spring Festival has begun in China. As you know, the commencement of this is marked by a celebration of the lunar New Year- beginning on the 31st of January and ending of the 18th of February, 2015. According to the Chinese Zodiac or Shēngxiào (“birth likeness”), we are ending the Year of the Snake and entering the Year of the Horse. The twelve year cycle of animals is said to influence the lives of the individuals born under the various signs. I myself was born in a Horse year. Now, I’m not superstitious, but for others in a similar position (1966, 1978, 1990, or 2002) who may be curious, it is said that our fortune will be mixed. Financial independence is fairly certain (so we should say goodbye to student loan debt! huzzah!) and we will form a great many new relationships (hopefully quality ones), but we should be wary of health problems. We also should strive to work on time management and stave off unproductiveness and impatience. Honestly, I could see these predictions being fairly accurate.

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China 101: Gong Fu Cha (Tea Ceremony)

January 19, 2014May 11, 2016Leave a comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip3drlRKXVQ

“The art of tea is a spiritual force for us to share.” – Alexandra Stoddard

People may think that the British get unruly if they miss their cuppa in the afternoon, but the idiom is “for all the tea in China” for a reason: the tea ceremony is an institution here. It has been for over 400 years. People organize society around it. It is a time of day when families get together and share what’s on their mind.

As you might know, there are few things I love more than tea. And I’m pleased to say, that in China, they do tea drinking right. They appreciate it, they revel in all the flavors, and most importantly they use it as an opportunity to connect. Tea drinking is a communal process. The tea ceremony is a gathering where all of the stratifications of society fall away, and–for a brief moment–all are equal. Everyone has tea, billionaires and beggars alike. People hash out business deals, wedding plans, lunch menus, and so much more over this miraculous little leaf.

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School Rules

January 12, 2014June 6, 2016Leave a comment

Location: Jian’ou No. 1 Middle School, Fujian Province, China

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Since we just finished giving our students their final exams, we thought we would talk a bit about what it is like to teach and learn here in China. We have been fortunate enough to meet and befriend another English teacher in our area. Her name is Suvien and she has been begging us to come see her at work for months. We finally did, thus had the ability to see what schools other than ours are like.

One of our favorite things are the uniforms. Children under the age of eight are required to wear yellow hat/red kerchief combos. They look like members of some sort of scouting troop. It’s interesting because every young student has the same color scheme, regardless of which school they attend. We assume that the name of their school is printed on the brim of their hat but, since we’re illiterate, we can’t tell for certain. It looks a little like Madeline, except the lines the children stand in are longer.

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New Year, from the Future

January 4, 2014June 7, 2016Leave a comment

Location: Difu Taoist Temple and Cloud Mountain, Jian’ou, Fujian Province, China

A new year has come and, with it, so have trips to the fringes of the city. To celebrate the coming of 2014, we climbed a mountain with Davi’s family. Of course, as per Chinese tradition, we did not find out that we were going to be doing any special activities for January 1–or even knew we had the day off, for that matter–until the previous afternoon. But, we made the best of the day. We even got to celebrate it a full 13 hours before all of you suckers in the Western Hemisphere, what V and I like to call “the past.”

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Building Stories

December 15, 2013June 7, 2016Leave a comment

Location: Jian’ou, Fujian Province, China

We are surrounded by architecture. See?

The differences between Western-style buildings and Eastern ones is vast, and can hardly be summarized in one of my pithy blog posts. However, some of the most interesting buildings are those that toe the line between Western and Eastern.

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