08.27.06
CC Speaks
Dear Friends,
“Everybody I love you and I want you to visit us here in China”
cc
School Starts soon!
Well school starts on September 1! I still have no clue where my classes are or who my students will be. They are very laid back here and keep telling me to relax a bit! I was told last week that I need to prepare my own curriculum……but don’t worry…..I can talk about anything I want to. Hmmmmmm? That could be a little scary! =)
Shao Lin Temple Continued
I wanted to finish our little adventure about Shao Lin Temple. We started the morning early (which was a good thing because by afternoon the place was packed!). Our first stop was the Shao Lin school (just outside the temple). The school is famous throughout the world for teaching the Shao Lin style of Kung Fu. Shao Lin style is historical througout China and basically is the beginning of Zen. Students (majority male, only a few female) come from all over China to study here. The program is 3 years long and there are approximately 10,000 students. We arrived early so we were able to watch the students pour from their dorms out to the fields to practice. Something very interesting was to see the students responsible for many tasks to run the university. You saw students picking up garbage, sweeping the streets, cleaning up the field. It seems they are responsible for keeping their university and practice fields clean and in good condition. Students were doing grounds work like cutting the lawn and weeding the flowers. What a great concept that could go a long way in the U.S!!! Their was a small group of adult foreign men who also seemed to be studying at the school but separately from the Chinese. It seems their is an international study program as well but we didn’t have the opportunity to ask. I will research and try to find a link for everyone to check out!
We then went into the Shao Lin Temple. The temples are all beautiful in China but this one is exceptionally beautiful. The temple is located at the bottom of Song Shan Mountain. The scenery is incredible and we were lucky to be their early to enjoy a blue sky! This temple was burned many years ago and was recently re-created to it’s original design. Their is a bit of conflict surrounding the “Head Monk”. He has been criticized for being too modern…..allowing heavy tourism, modern day amenities for the monks and he himself is on tv a lot. Traditionally monks have kept a low and quiet profile. This head monk is out with the people…..driving in a nice car and talking on a cell phone! Quite a difference. The temple is beautiful and attracts people from all over the world. We saw many tourists…..most from Europe.
CC was once again excited to pray to the “Happy Buddha”…..actually she wanted to pray at just about every Buddha. Her prayers? “Please take care of my daddy in America” “Please give us a safe visit in China” “Please take care of my grandma” “please say hi to Katie”
The temple also includes Pagoda grave sites for the monks who have passed away. Their students will build a pagoda in memory of them and place it on their grave.  The pagodas all look very similar…..their is a small one for the children and only one woman that we could find. CC was bored by this time so she sat on the sidewalk with Gu Ba (uncle). She was eating a cake and it fell on the ground, she picked it up and threw it in the garbage…..a woman who had been begging went to the garbage and took the cake out for herself. CC was really surprised by this. GuBa explained to her the woman is very poor and can’t afford a cake like that. As soon as CC saw me she was concerned by this. She told me the story and was very aware of the people who were begging.
Our adventure continues! We were looking at the side of the mountain when Yulin explained that we were going to look at the scenery of the mountain “a bit”. There was a ski lift carrying people in a little cart up the side of the mountain! I said “we aren’t riding in that thing are we????” (a cart on a rope) “Of course we are….it’s the only way up”. GuMa and GuBa assured me the quality of this cart was great because it was made in Austria! Wow….how comforting. I don’t even like the ski lift at Adventureland! I got in the cart and was holding CC so tight and had my eyes closed. I couldn’t look. CC and Yulin kept saying “it is so beautiful”. CC wasn’t scared a bit! She was loving it. I made a rule that no one could stand up or move! They did respect that rule but were laughing at my fear. We got to the top of the mountain. Everyone was proud of me for “making it”. Well little did I know it would only get crazier. We were litterally on the top of a mountain and it was beautiful. But the adventure didn’t end their.  The Chinese pride themselves on the “risks” involved with nature and the wonder of it. So on the side of this mountain is a path that has been made for people to walk along the mountainside. We got to this bridge……high in the mountains! I couldn’t imagine crossing it. At first I told them I wasn’t going. But I decided to join them. I insisted on holding onto CC. Basically I was scared out of my mind. At one point GuMa wanted to carry CC on her back and it freaked me out. I wanted CC’s feet to be firmly on the ground…..the side of the mountain….well….whatever! Everyone was laughing at me. I couldn’t believe people were walking on this path so everyday like. Yulin kept saying “every tourist spot is like this in china”……Yikes! I kept myself and CC as close to the side as possible. Of course CC wasn’t daunted much. She held my hand and followed my direction. There was a woman on the side of the mountain selling little knick knacks and her son was climbing all over the place. I was just amazed by this. This little guy would just wander around by himself…..with not a care in the world. There are warnings all over the place (in Chinese characters) that say things like “be careful” “extremely dangerous”…..how comforting….Yulin told me this when we were finished. Now….on the way down the mountain (in the cart on a rope)…..I actuallly kept my eyes open. CC told daddy she wanted to sit by him because I held her too tight! We made it…..just fine. Yulin made a comment that all of the praying CC did must have helped! Oh I love China!
Our feet were officially on the ground and we walked……for a few miles…..back to the car. We decided to stop in some of the shops. It is the tourist trap of Shao Lin Temple. Kind of like the Keystone to Mt. Rushmore. Store after store of touristy things. We were on a mission to find a “Red Dragon suit” for our friend Brian. He has a big CD release party in September and we wanted to give him something awesome to wear. He also loves Kung Fu kind of movies and has been hooked by the Steven Chao movies we have been watching. Anyhow……we found the PERFECT shirt for him. Red silk, traditional chinese collar, golden dragon sewn on! We went to buy it. The woman told us 180 yuan. Yulin’s sister couldn’t believe it. She told me, Yulin and CC to stay outside and we walked to another store. Sure enough their was the same shirt…..but for a Chinese woman buying it…..the price was 80 yuan! Big difference! They can see us foreigners coming!! Good thing Yulin’s sister knows how to play this game. She is a great price negotiator as well.
So….red dragon suit in hand, fear of the mountain overcome, prayers to buddha said……we all had a great adventure!
08.24.06
Apologies
Just wanted to thank you all for your emails and apologize for not responding sooner! The internet here is going to be a continual challenge. I promise I will try to write emails and on this blog at least once a day……but the internet may not allow it. Yesterday morning I was soooooooo excited to actually have access to email and this blog……and then by noon it was gone! So we will have to be patient. Yulin is helping me to get pictures on here. I still have many stories to tell in only the short time I have been here…..and some great pics too!! So keep on checking in. Thank you all for your comments and emails……they are GREATLY APPRECIATED. ~Ann~
First Run
Well I have been doing Tai Chi with Yulin’s mother and her friends every morning at 6 a.m. I am catching on and they have all been very helpful. I decided to run the other day. I went 2 miles. The people were looking at me like I am crazy……I was sweating like crazy…..going slow as ever and smiling from ear to ear. I must have frightened them!!! The streets were crowded (it was about 5:30a.m) and the temperature was already 90 some degrees. I decided to just run as far as I could and see where that would take me. I was slow…..I think the heat and the pollution are really having a bigger impact than I thought it would. I know once I get used to it I will do much better. I am looking forward to cooler weather. I have been keeping my eyes out for a nice spot to run. So far my choices have been pavement on the street, pavement on the campus, pavement in the neighborhood……..I think you get the picture. Boy do I miss the Quaking Bog and Eloise Butler flower garden…….and of course my favorite jogging spot…..the Logan Pond!!!
Our first adventure!
We took our first trip last week. Yulin’s sister, brother-in-law, Yulin, CC and myself decided to take a short trip to the famous Shao Lin Temple. While we were there we visited The Dragons Gate Caves and the White Horse Temple. Everything was beautiful. The drive was about 7 hours there and 8 hours home. So we spent some fun time in the car and saw some great China countryside. We were surprised to see so many cornfields!!!Â
Our first stop was LongMen (Dragon Gate) in the HeNan province. These caves are a great part of Chinese history. Sometime between 500-800AD these amazing caves of all shapes and sizes were carved in the side of a mountain. Within the caves were/are carvings of buddhas and traditional gods & warriors. During the cultural revolution in the 1970’s the caves were vandalized. Many of the carvings were stolen or destroyed. There is a great restoration project to protect this amazing structure for future generations. In the center of the mountain is a great Buddha that reaches over 50 feet high. Yulin captured many incredible photos and I am also including a link to their official website. The entire structure is breathtaking. the history behind this incredible piece of art just leaves you speechless…..and for me that is pretty difficult =) One bad thing that happened is that I was too busy looking up at the statues and didn’t pay attention to where I was walking. I missed a step and fell a down the rest of the stairs on my rump!! Ouch. The stairs are carved out of the mountain! Good thing I have plenty of padding! From then on I was really careful to watch my step. The Chinese kind of pride themselves on making this stuff challenging and risky. Nothing like America where everything is well lit and “safe” to avoid lawsuits =)
We then drove across town to the Bai Ma Si (White Horse Temple). This is a small Buddhist temple rich in history. This was actually the first official buddhist temple in China. The temple was beautiful. CC felt very compelled to pray to the Happy Buddha…..her favorite one. She asked a lot of questions and had a great respect for the traditions. Something I was really surprised to see were monks walking around eating ice cream cones and talking on cell phones. That was strange.
We drove on to DengFeng….the town where Sao Lin Temple is at…..and we spent the night in a really nice hotel. We were in a touristy area so our hotel (which was equivalent to a nice Holiday Inn) cost us an outrageous 240 Yuan ($30). I couldn’t believe it was so cheap….Yulin’s sister was angry that it was so expensive =) Song Shan Ying Bin Guan was the name….and CC was so excited to take home the slippers, soap, comb, toothbrush, sewing kit and shower cap all engraved with the name of the hotel on it! She decided to leave the shoe shine cloth…..because she couldn’t use it on her flip flops!
We went to dinner and Yulin’s sister was skeptical of the restaurants because rumor has it that the people of northern China can’t cook! Anyhow we went into a lovely restaurant (it had AC so it was lovely)….and Yulin’s sister was skeptical because there were no people there. They assured her it was good food and people would fill the restaurant. I couldn’t believe she was asking them if they could cook!! I told her that would never happen in the states. If you insult your restaurant staff they will spit in your food!!! hehehehheeheh they thought that was pretty funny. The owner of the restaurant made sure we had the best local food and top of the line treatment. We ate a local vegetable (seemed like cilantro/parsley). This is grown in the mountains and the province is famous for it. Yulin’s brother-in-law told a story of when he was 5 years old (about 40 years ago) he was forced to eat this vegetable…..Chairman Mao started Yi Ku Si Tien (remember the bitterness and think about the sweetness) movement. His goal was to have the Chinese people remember the difficult times they had and think about how great they were living! One of the ways to do this was to eat the same food people had to eat during the worst of times. This vegetable was one of the only foods they had at one time. It grows wild in the mountains so it was available when times were very hard.  It is very leafy and is similar to cilantro. It has an earthy taste with a bit of a bite to it. Â
The next day we went to the Shao Lin Temple. I will continue on another post.  It is time to eat. I hear Yulin’s mom saying Chi Fan, Chi Fan……and the house smells incredible!
Bye for now ~Ann~
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IT IS SO INCREDIBLY HOT!!!!
We got off the plane in Wuhan and Yulin’s brother said “welcome to Wuhan…..we are experiencing one of the worst heat waves ever!” Of course he said it in Chinese and Yulin had to translate. Before he could even finish knew what he was talking about. Everyone tried to warn me about how hot it gets here in the summer. This year is exceptionally hot and several places are experiencing droughts. Many places have limited water for drinking purposes only.
I thought I could handle the heat….because we know heat and humidity in Minnsota. HAHAHAHAHAH yea right!!! I am sweating from places on my body that I didn’t even know existed! Thank goodness for Air Conditioning. Yulin’s parents are equipped!! The heat is so intense and the air is so heavy that it makes it difficult to stay outside for too long. The last few days haven’t been too bad….and they tell me the heat wave is over and fall has officially began. Yikes!Â
08.22.06
Ni Hao Pengyou Men
Hello Friends! We have made it here in Wuhan. Our flight was just fine and our let lag was minimal. The technology has been a bit frustrating for us…..as we just connected to “highspeed” internet yesterday. The “highspeed” isn’t so speedy afterall. Anything to the US takes forever! My email, this blog, our online banking, the star tribune, etc etc! Thank you all for your comments. I plan to write on this blog at least once a day and in as many categories as I can. Today I will tell you all about some of our adventures already, dealing with the University, some yummy food and some of the people we have already met! Keep the comments company because your correspondence is GREATLY APPRECIATED!! I hope to add pictures as well. Take care!
~Ann~
08.13.06
A Big Party!
Thank you everyone for the big farewell party last night! (Saturday). Jaqui and Alexis were incredible hostesses and I know a lot of people put the party together! The food that everyone prepared was so yummy. It was great to see everyone and once again I was reminded of how fortunate I am to have so many great people around me. This morning I got up and read all of the comments on our travel quilt (beautifully stitched by Anne McCandless). I’m crying! I LOVE this quilt and will carry it with me everywhere in China. CC says she loves the quilt also! Thank you everyone for spoiling us and sending us off with such a great party!!!!
08.12.06
Leaving Yulin home =(
Many of you have been asking about Yulin and why he isn’t going to China with us. The biggest reason for him not staying is his career. He did ask for a sabatical for 6 months but it is just too busy for them to let him go.  He will be going to China with us to help us get settled but can only stay for a few weeks. This was a really tough decision for us…..believe me. We have thought long and hard about being separated for such a long time. We know this is an incredible opportunity for CC and this is the driving force behind our decision. We have wanted CC to spend some time in China for a long time now. This is the ideal time for her to go. We want CC to feel at home in China…..not like a tourist. It is important to both Yulin and myself for her to really understand the cultures and traditions of Yulin’s family as well. In the spectrum of our lives together 6 months is minimal. We are a strong little family unit and this will be a wonderful experience for us all.Â
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