Guangzhou - Day 12

We arrived in Guangzhou after a short flight from Nanchang. We quickly checked into the White Swan Hotel – which is now at full capacity. Sophie was kept entertained during check-in by Caleb Jones. He is too much and Sophie is fascinated by him.

Unfortunately, we are stuck with a very smokey smelling room with twin size beds. It is a very nice hotel, we just seemed to get stuck with a crap room. We kind of have a view in this room and can see a park below, the commercial street across the way, and the Pearl River. The White Swan is on Sha Mian Island, an area of Guangzhou that kind of reminds me of Savannah or Charleston.

After we got settled in, we met for group dinners. Half the group went to Lucy’s while Ileana and I joined the Cannons (Michael and Ashley and their daughter Katie), the Gabriels (I’ve mentioned them in previous blogs), and Betty (our guide) for Cantonese style food. The restaurant we chose immediately showed us the difference between Nanchang and Canton. In Nanchang, everything is cheap and they are a bit discriminating as to what they eat. In Canton, the food is a little more expensive and they eat “everything with legs except the table”.

We ordered several typical dishes including fried eggplant, BBQ goose, spicy pork, fish head soup, and noodles. Sophie loved the fish head soup! She eats quite a selection of food now and at this meal, she also had papaya (Ileana wouldn't let her try the worms).

The front of the restaurant has many tanks and cages with live animals to choose from for your dinner. Craig took his son Justus to the tanks at the front of the restaurant in order to choose some thing special for dinner. The dish arrived a few minutes later – steamed sand worms. They came with a side of sesame soy sauce and were actually not too bad, resembling a mild version of calamari. Luckily Craig was able to talk Justus out of his first choice, water beetle.

I just realized that the internet at the White Swan is awesome. For the past 11 days it has felt like I have been using dial-up. I also can see the blog and all of the comments now. I guess that whole "free speech" rumor is a hoax unless it is controlled province by province? Unfortunately, I also see that much of the formatting has been a mess. Actually, its not really a mess, its just not the way I had it laid out. Does everyone know they can click the pictures to get them to enlarge? Thought you would all like to know so you can get close ups of the sand worms and the water beetles.

-Chris

Last Day in Nanchang

I just got back from checking out and exchanging a little currency for "the road". Ileana and Sophie leave in a few minutes to get Sophie's passport. We leave at 12:30 for Guangzhou and should arrive there in time for a late dinner.

Our stay in Nanchang has been much nicer than was expected. We are looking forward to our last leg of our trip. We will be in Guangzhou until Thursday. From there we will be off to Hong Kong and will catch a flight back to Chicago on Friday from there. Hopefully I'll get a chance to post later. If not, I'll surely give you an update after our first day in Guangdong Province.

-Chris

Lushan Mountain - Day 11 (Sunday)

On the eleventh day, Ileana and I split up. She spent the day with people in Nanchang and it looks like she did a little shopping and since she is not home yet, I assume she is still having a good time. I spent the day with a couple families in the Lushan Mountains. I would liken the views (though definitely not the experience) to those I experienced when visiting the Great Wall at Simatai.

Lushan Mountain is a UNESCO World heritage site for its significance as a cultural landscape. The history of the mountain mirrors that of the country of China with significant political religious and cultural events all occurring at the site.

We rented a hotel van and had our guide, Mary, to show us around. We visited three scenic spots. Unfortunately there was a lot of fog today so the views were somewhat obscured but we hear that this is typical for Lushan. The scenic spots were the “Brocade Valley”, an outlook to the Yangtze River and then a major lookout to the highest peak on the mountain. Our guide was a bit disappointed by the views but none of us were bothered. If they are this amazing in the fog, I can’t imagine how nice they are when it is a clear day. Hopefully the photos that are posted give you some idea of what I saw.

As you can tell, the mountain is spectacular. I have not been to many of the National Parks in America so I may not have a lot to compare it to but I was impressed. The only unfortunate thing about experiencing the park was that it was the most un-natural experience of nature I have ever had. As much solitude as there was at Simatai, there were crowds at Lushan. Many of the tour guides for other groups used loud bullhorns on the trails. All of the paths are well paved and accessible by car. This meant hat EVERYONE was on them. I really had to go out of my way to find a secluded spot.

The weather on the mountain was about 10 degrees cooler than in Nanchang. I still sweated like a crazy due to the crowds on the path. There were these fantastic breezes that would come from the valley below. Not only were they cool but they smelled unlike anything I have smelled in China so far (a good thing).

One of the more interesting things that we saw on our hike through the “Brocade Valley” was a shrine to a famous Taoist monk. There were actually two shrines. One was a small temple built aside a second which was located in a huge natural cave. The centerpiece of the shrine is this huge gold statue of the monk. There was incense and people everywhere.

After a lack-luster lunch at the Lushan Hotel (formerly and American Hospital), we were treated to a visit to a house museum, the summer villa of Chang Kai Chek called, “Meilu”. It was an interesting visit but after experiencing many of China’s greatest historical sites, I have realized that they have a lot to learn in the curatorial department.

The ride to and from Lushan was the most enjoyable we have had so far. The bus was comfortable, the oncoming traffic was always separated by a median, and the air conditioning stayed on the whole time. If you were to visit, I would only suggest doing so on a weekday as the amount of people at the park was slightly annoying.

-Chris

Nanchang - Day 10 (Saturday)

It is a little hard to believe that we have been at this for ten days. Tomorrow will be our last day in Nanchang. Ileana and I will be splitting up for the day. I will be going to Lushan Mountain (the biggest tourist site in this part of China) and Ileana will be going to the public market. Ileana has had it with long Chinese Bus rides and has decided to stay behind. Though I don’t love the bus rides but I doubt I’ll be back in these parts so I am taking advantage of the trip. Hopefully it will be worth it.

After the trip to the village, our tenth day was balanced out with a visit to one of Nanchang’s more popular department stores. With the help of Mary, our tour guide, we bought Sophie some traditional children’s music on VCD. Hopefully it will work at home. Sophie loves being carried around in her Mei Tai but was a little overwhelmed with the store. As usual, she caused quite a stir with everyone we saw. After this trip, we went back to the hotel and ate the lunch buffet for the first time. It was expensive but great. Sophie loved the banana and the broccoli (despite mommy’s protestations, daddy also gave her some ice cream).

The weather today was ridiculous. It went over 100 but the humidity was only 40% (still insane). Ileana decided to join the other women and their daughters at their usual play site (in our elevator lobby). It is always great to see all of the kids together. I took the time to walk down to the pavilion to do some sketching. The endeavor was a bit better than yesterday but I smeared a few drawings with the shower of sweat coming off of me (nice visual, huh?). Perhaps I’ll post a sketch if I can get it photographed.

I got to walk around the pavilion a bit more – what an interesting building. I was also able to see the bridge from a distance for the first time (smog and haze have prevented an overall view until today (hope you like the pic Ligoz).

When I got back to the hotel, we walked over to Tiffanie’s as Sophie’s hand-made outfit was ready. It was too cute. The whole Jones family had outfits made for themselves. The cute blond is Caleb – a total pisser (can’t you tell by that look!). Eric and Joshua will be going to Lushan tomorrow as well.

This evening’s dinner was at the same restaurant as last night’s. We ate with the Gabriels which is always a treat. Craig entertained us with his stories of receiving acupuncture and “cup massage” treatments earlier in the day. He has these huge “hickies” in the shapes of cups on his back now and he said that it was one of the best experiences he has had since he got her (aside from getting Mia). Sophie had a bit of a meltdown at dinner This is why there are no pics). Oh, there is one pic - I almost forgot. See how Sophie loves her noodles!!! We are not sure why she had the meltdown. Perhaps it was that she (we) filled her mouth with too much potato and she couldn’t swallow. Either way, she still had plenty of noodles and broccoli so I am sure she is not going to starve.

Finally, I forgot to mention, Sophie took her first swim today. Mommy says that all went well and tried to get her to pose prior to going swimming. I'll have to bring along the camera next time we swim.

-Chris

Architecture in a Chinese Village

If you are looking for Sophie photos, you might want to skip this one.

Our tour guide felt that it was important for us all to experience the reality of Chinese life for 75% of its population so she brought our group to a typical Chinese village. I doubt any of us really experienced Chinese life as we all have the choice to go back to our air conditioned hotel rooms but it was still a very interesting experience for all. I wanted to share the experience with you while also in some way honoring the request of our guide to keep the pictures of the village life for our own personal use. There is a general concern about respecting the Chinese people’s concerns about mis-portraying the country. As such, I will focus on some of the architectural details and on the homes in the village. On some level, I think that these images give a lot of insight into the people we met and how they lived while respecting their privacy.

All of the people we met in this village outside of Nanchang were incredibly gracious – allowing us into their homes and yards. They were all very excited to see our babies and the older women wanted to hold and play with them. Many of us gladly obliged. The children of the village also took the presence of strangers as a venue to practice their English with the common phrases, “hello”, “good bye”, and “how are you” being repeated again and again.

The village we visited was about a half-hour outside of Nanchang. It was located just off a main road between two large ponds. It was laid out along seven parallel streets, with homes facing the street, not unlike America. The homes were typically attached in groups of two or three. At the end of each group, there would be an alley that would run perpendicular to the street. The alleys drained waters from heavy rains and were also a place for chickens and ducks to escape the heat of the direct sun.

There were two types of homes in the village we visited; a one-story home and a two-story home. All of the homes were constructed by the people in the village through a building tradition passed down from generation to generation and each had their own modest "yard" area between the street and their front door. Some of the homes we saw were built over 100 years ago and others were built within the last 5 years.

The one-story homes were typically the older homes in the village. Some one-story homes were masonry load-bearing structures on all four sides. Others had two end-wall masonry walls with side walls constructed of timbers with waddle and daub infill. The craftsmanship of some of the timber frame homes is remarkable and the care taken to place woven material and the finish clay surface is amazing. All of the one-story homes had large bamboo trusses that supported heavy clay or concrete tile roofs.

All of the masonry building materials would be purchased from a nearby village or city while many of the other building materials would come from the surrounding land. The masonry work is varied and quite interesting with a variety of bond patterns, lintel materials, and wall treatments being used. Even within a seemingly rigid and traditional method of building, there is still quite a bit of variety.

The two-story homes were all constructed of cast-in-place concrete. To construct the homes, a framework of bamboo bridging is constructed to support a plywood form system. Concrete would be poured and the framework moved to the next floor. The concrete frame would then be in-filled with brick and covered with either a stucco or ceramic tile surface. Ceramic tile seems to be the preferred choice in Jianxi province and this would seem to make sense as the province is the birthplace of Chinese Porcelain and still the greatest producer of porcelain in the world today. It is durable and is likely inexpensive to purchase and to install.

An interesting feature noticed on all of the homes by our tour group is a series of scrolls aside each door jamb and over each main door lintel. We were told that these were best wishes for the New Year and they are a sign of the hopefulness of the people inside. Whether they were poor or well off, they should all display their wishes. These will be left up until the next year.

There was a strange beauty to what we saw today but I do not want to romanticize it because it was not particularly nice. It was important to see this village, just as it was important to see the palaces in Beijing. This was a very unique experience and it is difficult to imagine the disparity between life in the Forbidden City and of the life in this village just over a hundred years ago. The fact that the village still exists today, in roughly the same form and level of economic prosperity, is even harder to comprehend.

-Chris