A Walk in the Park (Qingliangshan Park)

The woman (Helen) who manages our apartment feels a responsibility to share the sites of Nanjing with us -- even on her day off.  I returned home from my Thursday night classes at about 10 p.m. this week, and Brad said that Helen planned to meet us at 8:30 Friday morning to go to a park.  I know you can imagine my groans, and Brad even said I didn't need to go.  I thought I had every excuse to back out -- so tired and we had made plans to talk to Leslie for her birthday--not easy to arrange with the 12-hour time difference.

Entering the park

When Friday morning arrived, I decided I couldn't be rude to Helen and got ready to go (I did refuse to wash my hair!), Facetimed with Dano to rearrange the birthday call, and we were off.

We met Helen as planned and headed off to Qingliangshan Park.  First stop was the bus stop to catch the #6 bus.  Helen said it was only two stops to the park, but, having ridden the bus before, it's not obvious where the stops are or what you need to do to make the bus driver actually stop the bus.  We rode through a part of Nanjing we hadn't seen yet and watched Helen to get our cue when to get off.

The park opened right at the bus stop.  The entrance was beautiful and we began our journey.

Everywhere we turned we saw something new.  Since it was Friday, most of the other people in the park were older men and women, out for a little exercise.  People walking quickly, swinging their arms, and many walking backwards.  Badminton is a favorite sport of Chinese people of all ages, and there were a man and a woman playing badminton, with no net.  They were really good, even without the net.  They served over hand and kept the birdie in play for multiple volleys--very impressive.  As we continued our walk, we heard music playing and found a group who had brought their traditional instruments to the park just to jam.  Two or three were going over some music, while others just played.  We weren't sure if they were actually playing the same piece, but somehow it worked.

Our new cute friends

As we walked further, we came across a gazebo where some women were just chatting.  We sat down with them, and they were so cute.  They wanted to tell us their ages (all in their 80s), and they made fun of my size 11 walking shoes, which, compared to their tiny feet, looked gigantic.  We all had a good laugh!

Helen started to hurry us along to another part of park, and as we walked we started to hear the sound of birds singing.  Helen had told us earlier that this park was known for the birds.  We pictured the bird markets in  Europe, but that's not what we saw.  All along our path, bird cages had been hung up in the trees.  We soon learned that the men brought their birds to the park on nice days for the birds to get some fresh air.. The men then sat around and shared bird stories, we guess. Sounds a little strange, but we decided it was not any stranger than the dog parks in the U.S.  I included some pictures of what we saw because I know it's hard to imagine trees filled with bird cages.  Brad also shot some video, to chronicle the sounds of the experience.

I'm glad I didn't miss it.

This man was so proud of his tiny bird.

A condo!
Click Picture to see video.

Packing up to go home --7 birds on board
Click Picture to See Video.

One last breath  of fresh air!

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Before the teaching craziness of this week began (I added five new classes of freshmen!), Brad and I spent a morning at Xuanwu Lake.  Only two subway stops from our apartment, we enjoyed a beautiful, warm, not humid day, at the lake with hundreds of Nanjing families.  It was Mid-Autumn Festival, a time for families to reunite and lots of them reunited at Xuanwu.

The city wall entrance to Xuanwu Lake.

The main entrance to the park goes right through the old city wall of Nanjing.  As we entered through the gate, we saw the lake filled with small boats and other water craft. Everyone was having a great time.  Merchants knew a good day to sell, lining the sidewalks -- food, toys, scarves, coconut milk in the shells, and popcorn!  Everyone had a camera and people posed at every beautiful spot along the paths.  Families set up small tents for a little urban camping, and much to our surprise, a miniature train carried a number of delighted children.  We sat on the lake's edge and watched some men "driving" their battery-operated speedboats on the lake, weaving in and out of the regular boats.

We walked from one entrance of the park to the other, probably three miles, exiting through another opening in the city wall.  It was such a beautiful day, the distance didn't seem to matter--a far cry from our normal exhausting heat experiences of the last few weeks.  It was so nice,we actually ended up walking all the way home.  Nanjing is a great walking city, maybe because the traffic is so bad, it's often to just walk.  This day, the weather made it the perfect time to be on the streets.  Wonderful day!

Boats dotted the water.

Vendors lining the sidewalks at the lake.

A scarf for every taste.

Popcorn!

Ah. . .a nice cold drink. . .Not!

Beautiful setting for a beautiful family.  Cameras were everywhere.

Everyone was having a good time.

Looking across the lake at Purple Mountain, another place to visit.

A little urban camping.

What a surprise!

Leaving the lake and park.  A perfect day!

A Night on the Town. . .continued

This is the video from an evening out.  A group just set up on the street corner for everyone to enjoy.  Last night when we came from the subway, another young guy had set up his electric piano and was playing for the crowds.  This could be a way for us to supplement our income while in China!

Mid-Autumn Festival and Moon Cakes

Even though it's 90 degrees most of this week, China celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival this Thursday (Sept. 19).  Outside still screams "summer," but this annual holiday celebrates the end of the harvest.  Traditionally, it's celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese calendar, but it also coincides with the full moon, which is Sept. 19.

I asked my students yesterday what the holiday was about, and they said it's like Thanksgiving, a time when family and friends come together.  They also compared it to a reunion, a time to go visit parents and relatives.  Unfortunately, unless the students live close the their families, they said they wouldn't be going home this year.

The festival is also called the Moon or Moon Cake Festival because of its association with the full moon.  Brad and I wondered what all the pastries were in the store, each stamped with a red Chinese characters.  They were hundreds of them.  We discovered they are moon cakes, made especially for this festival time.  We bought a couple and they were good--flaky crust with a fig filling (like Fig Newtons).  We were at the store again and noticed a big line to buy cakes coming right out of the oven.  Why not?  We took them home and when we went to eat them, we realized the filling was pork!  Another in our long line of "is it sweet? or is it savory?' experiences.  They still tasted good, but not exactly the dessert we were hoping for.

Catherine's homemade moon cakes.(We already ate 3!)

Yesterday afternoon, my contact, Catherine (Cao Ning), in the Foreign Language Department, called and asked to meet me in the lobby of apartment.  She had something to give me.  I thought it might be more class lists for my classes that start next week.  I went to meet her, and much to my surprise, she had made moon cakes for us.  Beautifully presented in individual boxes, her homemade cakes didn't resemble the ones in the grocery store at all.  There were two varieties, one with Chinese characters, which Catherine said meant good fortune, and the other had a four-leaf clover, with a similar meaning.  One had an apricot filling and the other coconut.  They are delicious, and not likely to last until Thursday.  I'm going to be keeping my eyes open for those moon cake pans.

While we were sitting in a restaurant, we notice some young women sitting next to us who had a beautiful shopping bag from a bakery that clearly specializes in moon cakes.  I motioned to see if I could take a picture of the bag, and, in perfect English, one of the women said, "of course."  I really need to starting assuming that anyone under 30 will probably have some English skills.

Brad plans to ask the students in his class tonight where we should go Thursday for the best Mid-Autumn Festival celebration in Nanjing.  I'm sure it will include fireworks.  More to come.

Beautiful presentation!

The moon cake shopping bag.

Pearl Buck in China (in Nanjing)

When we decided to go to China, I talked my book club into reading Pearl Buck's The Good Earth.  Since we're going to Skype tonight, I wanted to share some of the things I've learned about this book and about Pearl Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973)).  She was the daughter of American missionaries and spent most of her life before 1934 living in China.  In fact she lived on the Nanjing University campus from 1920-1933, where she and her husband taught.  I walked up to the house today and took a couple of pictures.  In 2012, the 110th anniversary of the University, the house was dedicated as a memorial to Buck  She loved the Chinese people and dedicated her life to helping the west understand the people and the country.

Buck is know in China as Sài Zhēnzhū.

Most of us probably read The Good Earth  in high school, but this was not the book I read in high school.  I read it with new eyes and a new heart.  Published in 1931, Buck won the Pulitzer prize for literature in 1932.  It tells the story of a rural Chinese family in the early 20th century, before World I.  During the Cultural Revolution, because she was an American writing about Chinese peasants, Buck was called an "American cultural imperialist," and the book was banned in China for many years.  It is widely available in China now, but not with anything near the popularity the book garners in the U.S.

I grew to love O-lan, a former slave who marries the young farmer Wang Lung.  She spends a lifetime dedicated to improving her husband's and children's lives and receives nothing in return.  She lived her life never expressing her feelings or pain.  ". . .she would not be hastened.  Words were to her things to be caught one by one and released with difficulty."

Friends, pick up this book again!

Pearl Buck's House on the Nanjing University campus.

The front door of the house.

Showered with News

Last night Brad ate our last cookie, so we decided to go our to find a new supply.  (Jeff told me my blog had a lot of food references, but finding food sources has been a major focus of our first weeks in China.)  We walked outside and immediately felt the wall of humidity that has hovered over Nanjing pretty much since we got here.  As I've mentioned before, we live right on the campus of Nanjing University, in fact, we are surrounded by upper classmen dorms.  The streets and sidewalks were filled with students, most carrying small baskets filled with shampoo, toiletries and towels, all wearing flipflops and pajamas. 

We realized that we live right next to the building that houses all the showers for the surrounding dorms.  Apparently, the dorms don't have showers, so the students have to walk to the "shower building."  Depending on which way they were going, the students either had wet hair or looked like they were about to have wet hair.  We were surrounded with clean and soon-to-be-clean young people.  If your kids are living in dorms in the U.S., tell them not to complain about having to walk down the hall to shower!

We thought about just letting our video camera capture the experience, but we thought better of it.  I took a walk today to chronicle the experience, but you'll have to use your imagination to picture the hundreds of students milling around in the dark last night.

The shower building, minus the showering students. (not quite as exciting)

Upper classmen dorms, compute with outdoor  clothes "dryers."

A Visit to the Confucius Temple

Brad and I have spent our first couple of weeks in China focused on the basics -- food, shelter and communication. Not a whole lot of sightseeing.  So we jumped at the chance to go with our housing host, Helen, on a trip to the Confucius Temple in Nanjing.  She wanted to share a little of her city with us -- another example of the generosity we have experienced.  It was her day off, and she chose to spend it with us.

My knowledge of Confucius is pretty thin, other than knowing he was a Chinese philosopher.  But a little research revealed him to be much, much more.  He lived in 551–479 BC, and was the father of a philosophy that emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity.  He wasn't interested in ruling, and recommended family as a basis for ideal government.

The Confucius Temple in Nanjing was originally built in 1034 AD, long after Confucius died.  It was built as a sanctuary, where followers could study and learn Confucius' philosophy.  Confuscianism is not a religion in the traditional sense, but it does teach about an afterlife and about Heaven.  And Confucius championed strong family loyalty, ancestor worship, and respect of elders by their children.

So does any of this have anything to do what is located in Nanjing today?  The temple suffered repeated damage over the centuries and was burned almost to the ground during World War 2.  In 1984, with local government support, the temple was rebuilt in much the same style of the early temple.  It is a huge complex right in the middle of the city on the Qin Huai River.  A portion of the complex is dedicated to study, but the majority of the area is a tourist center, with lots of shops, boat rides, and restaurants.  We seemed to be the only westerners in the crowd of primarily Chinese tourists.  This was one of many moments since we arrived in China that I wished I understood Mandarin.  I was very curious to know what the tour guides saying.  Confucianism is somewhat controversial--not as controversial as it was during Mao's time--but I was definitely curious how the philosophy is explained today.  Back to the Chinese lessons!

Close-up of Temple Wall

Entering the Confucius Temple complex

Looking across the Qin Huai River. Tour boats in the foreground.

Shop after shop of things to buy

My favorite store -- Bras and Buns!

Surprised a few tourists.  (Silly Měiguó rén! That's "American."

It had been raining so it was this man's job to sweep the water away.

Finally got the photographer to pose.

Hard boiled or not?!

Food shopping continues to be a wonderful form of amusement.  I have been hesitant to buy eggs because in every store we've been to, the eggs are not refrigerated.  It doesn't seem to be an issue for the Chinese, but we did notice a big line of people at one grocery store, which we discovered was the line to buy eggs.  By the time we realized what another line was for, the eggs for that day were gone.  Over the weekend, though, I decided I would give eggs a try.  They were in a nice container and looked inviting, so I bought some.

We also bought already-cooked stir fry noodles and thought we would add a little scrambled egg to the mixture.  I started to break a couple of eggs, and realized the eggs I bought were hard-boiled.  Such disappointment!  The noodles had to stand on their own.

Over the weekend, our friends, the Bjorkmans, shared a bottle of mayo with us.   Who knew that was the perfect hostess gift?!  With mayo in hand, I thought egg salad was in our future for lunch today.  I pulled the eggs out of the mini fridge and hit one on the counter to peel for the salad.  Much to my surprise, the eggs are not hard-boiled after all.  They just have a thicker inner skin than the eggs at home. No egg salad!  I think I'm going to have to work myself up to trying eggs again. I love eggs, so it probably won't be too long.

On a very positive note -- refrigerated skim milk has been found!

Which symbol say not hard boiled?!

Looking good!

Yahoo!

A Night on the Town

The great thing about where we live in Nanjing is that a night on the town is only a five-minute walk away.  As we were leaving I asked the woman at the front desk of our apartment for a suggestion for a restaurant with traditional regional food.  She was so excited that we would ask and offered several ideas within walking distance.

Ron and Marilyn Bjorkman, the other BYU couple here in Nanjing, set off with Brad and me for the Deji Plaza, where our restaurant, Dai Pai Dang, is located. We discovered that Deji is an enormous, upscale mall, only about four blocks away.  A walk in Nanjing is part of the entertainment for the evening.  As I think I've already written, traffic lights appear to be suggestions, particularly for bicycles and scooters.  We crossed at a major intersection and joined a large crowd making its way to the other side of the street.  A great traditional Chinese music duo set up on one corner of the busy intersection.  I had to video them for a few moments (couldn't get this to load, but I'll try later).

Arriving at Deji we walked into floor after floor of huge stores and small shops, including Versace, Chanel, Michael Kors -- every internationally-known retailer.  Our hosts told us that not many Chinese shop there, but there were certainly a lot of window shoppers.  We made our way to the 7th floor, only to realize we were in the wrong section of the plaza.  We wound our way to the other side and found Da Pai Dang.  It was a huge restaurant filled with Chinese families.  We were seated immediately and given a menu with plenty of pictures.  We chose some dumplings, fried radish cakes, a duck dish, glutinous rice with pork, beef cooked with noodles, and waited to see what we would get. 

Wonderful!  Every bite a different flavor. A pitcher of mango juice topped off the dinner.  We gain more confidence every time we go out. 

Intersection of Guangzhou and Zhongshan

Duck

Glutinous rice with pork - delicious!

A Good Night's Sleep

One of the amazing benefits of this experience in Nanjing is our apartment in foreign faculty housing, right on the Nanjing University campus.  It's an amazing location.  We're surrounded by the old campus buildings, but the bustling city of eight million people is less than a 5-minute walk away.  A couple of the pictures below show the constant mixture of old and new.  Having a western bathroom more than makes up for any other shortcomings.

The only things we decided to change was our bed.  It's a queen, but we think someone else in our building must have the mattress, because we only have the box springs.  We thought our sleep problems could be attributed to jet lag, but after a week, Brad decided it had to be the bed.  Another adventure began.

We discovered there is an Ikea in Nanjing!  With Google maps on our phone, we found it, along with directions on how to get there.  The first leg of the journey, a simple ride on the subway, about five stops.  The next leg, a bus ride--the only problem was Google's suggested bus number and direction were in Chinese characters.  We found the bus station, but we had no idea which bus to take, and it wasn't in a neighborhood where it looked like many people spoke English.  Right next to the bus station, there was a guy frying things, and he seemed sympathetic to our situation, so we showed him the characters on the phone.  He pulled out a huge bus map with thousands of characters on it.  He patiently read through all the schedules until he actually found the bus we were looking for and showed it to Brad -- the 101 (if it had had any number over 5, we would have been in trouble, since Brad has only learned 0-4).  The man gestured for us to wait near him and gave us the go-ahead when the bus arrived.

Within 10 minutes our bus arrived near Ikea.  It was just like the Ikea in Canton, Michigan -- yes, they make you wind through the entire store to find what you're looking for.  We found a reasonable mattress pad and a couple of pillows -- success!  Then the adventure began again.  I refused to carry this huge mattress on the bus/subway back to our apartment, and wouldn't you know that Ikea would have a taxi stand right in front of the store.  We had no idea what a taxi would cost, but we climbed in and said, "Nada Guangzhou-lu" (the phrase we'd been taught to get home). The ride was like going from Wall St. to the upper East Side of New York City, and you can imagine how much we thought this was going to cost.  We arrived right at our gate, and the driver said, "23 RMB" -- less that $4!

One last note.  The directions in the mattress said to give it 72 hours before using.  Did we follow that direction?  No! And we even cut the tags off the pillow.  Ah, sleep.

The view out our bathroom window -- the Zifeng Tower again.

The view out our living room window - old and new.

Need I say more!

First Day of School

This was not just my first day of school, but it was my first day as a teacher.  I've taught youth, children and adults, but never in a formal classroom situation, with students calling me "Professor Smith"!  I'm teaching conversational English to sophomores and freshmen, making up curriculum as I go along.  The only direction is that they want me to give the students exposure to a native English speaker.  I guess that's me!

Most Chinese students choose an English name when they started studying English in primary school.  They get pretty creative.  While there is Katherine, Sean and Carla, there is also Zephyr, Milky and Shiny.  Shiny told me she wants to change her English name and asked if I would help her.  Not what I expected, but I'll keep you posted.

The students I met today are great, and their English skills incredible. Many of them want to be able to teach Chinese to English speakers and feel that fluency in English is their path to making that happen.  We are going to have a good time getting acquainted, as they learn about some new ideas I have to share, and as they teach me about China and their culture.

Now only five more classes of students to meet!

Pretty cute! (Yes, that's Shiny in the front row.)

Adventures in Food Shopping

Food shopping has never been my favorite thing to do, but here in China, it has risen to a whole new level.  The first few days we were here, my stomach hadn't caught up with the rest of me, so no food was looking very good.  But with few items left in our apartment by our predecessors, Brad and I ventured into a local grocery store.  We selected our cart and rode the moving sidewalk down into the store.  Paper goods looked familiar, so we were okay there, but then the challenges soon began.  After over an hour of trying to figure out what we were looking at, we left with just over $100 Chinese dollars (yuan) or about $16 worth of items, which included rolls, soy sauce, apples, a couple of cucumbers and tomatoes, and some cookies.  We didn't recognize anything in the meat/poultry/fish department, and the only frozen meat we found was duck.

I realized that I was in no shape to be selecting food, and, thankfully, my stomach has arrived, and we decided to try again, or Brad was going to starve.  He set the limit at four meals of rice.  We had our shopping bags in hand, our smart phone translator app primed, and we were ready to try again.  We found a super Carrefour store (the Walmart of France) only two subway stops away, and were ready to shop.  It was a great store, an interesting combination of Chinese and international shopping.  There were people to help in every aisle, recommending the best laundry detergent and steering us away from the packaged Tysons chicken breast to the local fresh breasts.  Surprises were everywhere!  The pictures below offer a few.  A truly incredible offering was an in-store stir fry station.  We piled numerous types of noodles into a take-out container and then pointed to the vegetables we wanted.  The stir fry cook put it all together with sauces and spices, handing us a complete dinner for less that $3  Brad was saved.

We are still milk-challenged.  Brad found some boxed soy milk, which he is using on the Chinese version of corn flakes.  He says the combination tastes just like Frosted Flakes, but I'm not ready to go there yet.  Skim or nonfat milk is tougher to find.  We finally found some, again in a box -- not in the normal dairy section.  We put some in our cart to try, but somehow it didn't make it home.  I'm taking this as an omen, but I am not giving up.

Needs no explanation!

Maybe next time

Maybe never.

Cuff and Link

Trying to look inconspicuous.

Skim Milk - the miracle of the translator app.