Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Feeling good in Jamaica

Actually, we've never been to Jamaica--it's the only tourism related tagline I could recall. (And it's what? over 20 years old?) If there are any taglines to entice folks to visit Dali, I don't know them. But that's what we did. Visit Dali, I mean.

I suppose I should clarify something upfront. Dali is the name of both a city and the prefecture it's in. In the past, when students (such as Gail and Whitney) said they were from Dali, we assumed they came from the city. It turns out that the old city of Dali itself is somewhat small and neither of our hosts live within its walls. Ah, well, live and learn.

Gail's hometown of Hongyuan, which I've mentioned previously, is south of Dali proper. The next morning we hired a mien bao che--small van to you non-Chinese speakers--to take us up to Xiaguan. Now when you take a bus to Dali from other parts of Yunnan, odds are you'll end up in Xiaguan. It's the big city with the bus and train stations, all the tall buildings and what not. It was there we hooked up with our other student, Whitney. We saw a couple sights in Xiaguan, including a structure I've taken to call the Pinball Palace. Mostly Xiaguan struck me as a smaller and cleaner version of Kunming. Lots of buildings, lots of traffic and big city buses for getting around.

After lunch, which by the way was at KFC--probably the worst meal of the whole trip--not that it was bad, it was just that the other meals were so good. Anyway, after lunch we hopped a city bus up to Dali proper. It was a nice twenty minute ride up the coast of Erhai lake. The ancient city of Dali is actually a walled city--something that still impresses this not-so-traveled Americano. It has a distinct style of architecture. The buildings seem to be predominantly made of grey stone with tile roofs that have the curved corners. The upper portions of the walls are more often than not illustrated with pictures or designs. (The best picture I have of it is actually from the Ethnic Minorities villages in Kunming.) We call the style Bai, though I'm not sure if it is actually comes from that people group. (Fine travel writer I'm turning out to be!) The city itself, or at least the part we saw, is quite clean and well maintained.

That makes sense, since the ancient city of Dali is a definite tourist trap. Lots of things to see, lots of places to shop and lots of places to obtain Bai clothing. Dali, of course, is the homeland of the Bai ethnic minority. How many Bai actually live there, however, I have to wonder. (the only Bai student I've met actually lives here in our town--her great-grandfather moved here from Dali and registered as a Han person.) It seems that half the women there wear at least part of the traditional costume. I have three theories as to why that is. The first is that they are actually Bai and proud of their heritage and all that. The second is that the tourists come to Dali expecting to see Bai people so the shopkeepers and other residents dress that way to make the visitors happy. The third is that there are so many Bai costumes manufactured for sale to the tourists that buying one second hand is incredibly cheap. Whatever the reason, the outfits are quite nice to look at.

We spent the night in Dali and then in the morning headed outside of town for a cable car ride up Cang mountain. There are some maintained trails up there and we spent the morning having a look around and dodging snowballs thrown by my daughters. (I refrained from retaliation. Not that I am such a man of peace but rather that the stuff on the ground was old snow. Snowball fights are a lot more fun when the snow is fresh.) After a quick lunch back in the old town, we grabbed another mien bao che up north to the town of Hudiequan--Butterfly Spring.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

When darkness falls

Oh, one more thing about our night in Hongyuan. Our hosts dropped us off for the night and we started getting ready for bed. Suddenly, the lights went out! We peeked outside and saw that the whole building was out, not just our room. A minute later, a hotel employee showed up with a couple of candles. We thought about just brushing our teeth and jumping into bed when Gail and her father showed up. I might have misunderstood them, but it sounded like this was a regular occurrence, that the whole town is blacked out at 9:00 pm or so. Indeed, when I went out onto the balcony and looked out, the whole town was dark. If I understood correctly and the whole town was regularly blacked out, I am amazed that such a thing could occur. Back in the States, I have a tendency to think of electricity as a right. having my power withheld for whatever reason would take some adjustment. On the other hand, it would make for good stargazing. The sky overhead that night was gorgeous. Unfortunately, the folks at the hotel soon cranked up a generator and the view was lost in the courtyard lights.

Sleep tight

In many ways, our trip around Yunnan was a first for us. One of those firsts was our first real encounter with a Yunnan winter. The rule here in China is that south of the Yellow River, buildings do not have central heating. If we were living in Hong Kong or Guangzhou, we probably wouldn't have minded that at all. But living up in the heights of Yunnan, weather gets a bit chilly. We've never really dealt with it the way a typical resident would have, though. Our apartment came with a space heater, and over the months we've managed to acquire a couple more. Naturally, we use them a lot. While it doesn't quite make our apartment balmy, it does take the edge off the chill as well as give us a warm place to stand when we get dressed or get out of the shower. When we've traveled, we've also been spared the winter chill as we've always been booked into hotels with room heaters.

Well, this trip was different. When our students planned our trip, they were smart. They found inexpensive hotels that met our requirements--Western toilets and hot water. We had never asked for heated rooms, however, as we had never thought that the rooms wouldn't be heated. The first night, when we returned to our hotel room after dinner at Gail's house, we realized that we were in for a chilly night. The temptation was to skip showering and jump right under the covers. But the hot water in this hotel was available at night, so despite the cold tile floors, we all did our showering. While it was unpleasant, I should point out that the experience wasn't bad. Like most Chinese hotels, management provided a big thermos of hot water. I always thought that the practice was due to the fact that Chinese folks like to drink tea. That may be the case, but in the winter time, hot water is a good way to keep warm. The blankets on the bed were also well suited to the environment. After a few minutes under the covers I was as comfortable as I have ever been back home.

On our second night, we stayed in a guesthouse in the old city of Dali. The situation was the same, hot water but no heater. Actually, there were heating pads on the beds. By turning those on and letting them bake a bit under the warm blankets, we were treated to beds that were nice and toasty. I even took off a layer after trying to sleep under those warm covers. If I had read about these accommodations before coming to China, I would have probably have avoided the place. But having experienced it firsthand (And having been charged only 40 kuai/$5 US per room) I think it's a pretty good deal. And it's really just the way folks live around here. When we visited the homes of our students, the heating situation was the same. We all wore our coats inside the same as we did outside.

I suppose it's all just a matter of how one attempts to keep warm. Back in America we attempt to master our environments, ensuring our homes can be set to the proper temperature despite the weather outside. In China, folks just dress for the weather, indoors or out. The thought of coming into a warm, cozy house is really a cultural expectation. On our trip, cozy meant gathering with others around a cup of tea and a good meal (or two). I have to admire the gestalt of it all, and feel a bit guilty about my own way of life. Of course, I'm not about to get rid of my furnace back home. Even if the rest of the family would accept it, I am a product of my own culture. But I can't help but think that maybe the customs here aren't worth considering.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Welcome to Hongyuan

Visiting Gail's hometown was quite a lesson in hospitality. As I mentioned before, we had declined an offer to stay in her home, citing the need for Western-style toilets. She had mentioned that she could arrange a hotel for us, but when we got to Hongyuan, I wondered if the town was even big enough for a hotel. It turns out that the town did have a hotel--sort of. Apparently one of Gail's relatives had recently bought a building and were in the process of converting it into a hotel. It wasn't open to the public yet, but we got a chance to stay there anyway. Gail's father met us right away and helped take our suitcases up to the room. We didn't spend too much time there, but rather headed over to their house.

Both Gail's house and the hotel were in the busy part of town. (I suppose I should 'fess up and mention that this was the only part of Hongyuan we got a chance to see. But looking over the rooftops, the town didn't appear to be all that large, so I'm assuming we were in the busy part.) Commerce was in full swing as we walked down the few blocks. The buildings in Hongyuan looked older than those in our city, giving the place a sense of history. It's kind of like comparing the main streets of a 50 year old town to a 100 year old town back in the States. Gail's father had his own business, what looked like a feed supply company. There was a "storefront" on the main level, behind which was a typical Chinese courtyard and then the kitchen. On the next level were the living room and bedrooms. The third floor was vacant, set up as a guest suite. I suppose it could be a potential "mother-in-law apartment". Up above that was a small room in the "attic". Gail said that her Dad was thinking about turning it into a computer room for her once she graduated.

To start, we sat down in the storefront. We met Gail's mom and had some tea and sunflower seeds. Due to the language barrier, idle chit-chat was not really an option. When you can't converse, the next best option for sociability is to eat. So despite the fact that we were noshing on sunflower seeds and the family was preparing a meal for us, Gail's father went to a vendor across the street and ordered bowls of dumplings for everyone. Now either service in Hongyuan is among the best in the world or Gail's family has pretty good connections in the hood since the vendor actually delivered the dumplings to us. The food, of course, was delicious.

After a bit, Gail took us upstairs and gave us a tour of her home. We then settled down in the living room and got a chance to peruse her family photographs. It was kind of interesting that despite our different cultures and ages, that our family albums were a lot alike. Like me, she had old black and white photos of her Dad's army days. Then the variety of photos of family and friends on different trips and at different holidays. The one big difference that we noted is that the trips were taken with coworkers rather than with family. We had shots of Gail's mom in Beijing and her Dad in Hainan, but not a big selection of family vacations.

Finally it was time for dinner, so we were ushered down to the kitchen. In a classical Chinese home, the dining room is removed from the kitchen. In the case of Gail's family, they only have a dining nook which seats three comfortably. Gail apologized for having to host us in the kitchen, but it actually felt much more homelike to us mei guo ren. Of course, once we started eating, where we were eating really didn't matter. In previous conversations, Gail had claimed that her father was a good cook. This proved to be quite true. (Assuming, of course, that he did the cooking. We weren't privy to the preparations.) Dinner was delicious and I almost regretted having eaten the dumplings earlier. If this was what it was like to visit a student at home, maybe we should just stay in Yunnan in the summer and go visiting.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Travelogue

Okay, we took this big ol' trip--okay, maybe it's not so big. But it doesn't seem small either. Okay, let's say we took this trip of subjective size. And now I'm back home and I think I should be blogging about it but I've got writer's block. I do have some notes in my steno book that I wrote on the trip, along with a lengthy account of my search for a taxi at 6:00 am on the day of our departure. The problem is that, upon further reflection, I doubt if anyone really wants to read about my quest. And then if I reflect further, I have to wonder if anyone really wants to hear about my trip. And, of course, that leads to the speculation as to whether anyone wants to read this blog. ... Ah, well, that never stopped me before.

Anyway, the trip. Like I said, we started out by looking for a taxi. The shortened version of that tale is that there are very few taxis roaming our part of town at 6:00 am. The plan was for me to go out, hail a taxi and bring it back home to fetch the wife, kids and luggage. I ended up walking halfway to the bus station before I found one. But found one I did and we got to the station a half hour before our scheduled time of departure. That's a ridiculously early time to arrive for a bus in Yunnan, but I wanted to make sure I scored some space to stow our bloated suitcases. It also gave us time to touch base with our driver. I showed him two notes provided to us by our students. The first told him to let us off at the No. 1 Middle School in Midu. The second told him to call one of the students, Gail, and discuss our travel needs with her. He ignored the second note, which seemed okay with me. In our experience, bus drivers have been quite solicitous for our welfare and I had no doubt that he would make sure that we got off at the right spot.

This initial bus trip was quite pleasant. We were treated to a Jackie Chan movie at the start, and by the time it was over the sun had risen and there were better sights to watch. We passed by some gorgeous scenery as the bus snaked up and down the mountain roads. We have traveled this road a number of times, but this was the first time we did it when it wasn't dark. (We did try a daytime trip back in October of '05, but, well, you can read how that turned out.) I regretted letting the children have the window seats, but then, the pictures probably wouldn't have turned out well anyway. Because of a late start and some slick conditions, we were a bit late stopping for lunch. We had a decent meal in a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. As I expected, the driver took good care of us. As we were finishing our meal, he signaled us that he was ready to leave. I was again impressed with the courtesy expressed in this country. Five minutes later, however, I realized we were getting special foreigner treatment. He had driven off without a couple of passengers, who had to grab a three wheel taxi and chase down the bus before he hit the open road.

As we headed for Midu, I was keeping a close eye on the road signs and the map. I still expected the driver to let us off at the right place but just in case I wanted to be ready. It was good practice for my recognition of Chinese characters (I don't know if you could call it "reading"), but it was, in the end unnecessary. As we ventured through Midu he suddenly came to a stop and motioned us to get off. Gail was waiting for us and led us to a local bus that took us to Hongyuan, her hometown. It was a pleasant ride through farming country and soon we were at our hotel. The first leg of our journey was successfully completed.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Oink

(We interrupt the vacation reminiscing for this late breaking post.)

Okay, we've spent our second Spring Festival/Chinese New Year in China and I think we've got it all figured out. To celebrate properly, you need to a) buy some fireworks, b) set some off at random intervals throughout Spring Festival Eve, c) set off the rest of your stash at midnight, and/or d) if you fell asleep before midnight, set off the rest of your stash when you get up in the morning.

Anyway, that's what Spring festival sounded like from the confines of our apartment. We never actually ventured outside or attended any celebrations or anything. In all seriousness, I should probably declare that we are still ignorant lao wai when it comes to Spring Festival. We can only guess at what this all means for the Chinese people. The closest we came to celebrating was to tune in the big holiday extravaganza that plays on CCTV. Or should I say we tried to tune it in. We didn't know exactly which CCTV channel was playing the show, so when we turned on the tube last night we just flipped channels looking for it. There were a couple of shows that looked like a big holiday extravaganza, so we picked the one that looked the most extravaganzish. At about the second commercial break (alas, Chinese TV is also plagued with commercials), I flipped channels again and discovered that about four or five of the CCTVs were playing the same variety show. Oops. Looks like we had been watching some show geared toward military folks. (Over half the audience were in uniform, as were many of the performers.) Ah, well. We stuck with the show we had started watching 'til it was over, then the kids watched about a half hour of the real show. (By that time, I had moved over to the computer as I had all sorts of computery things I wanted to do.)

Today we also didn't celebrate Spring Festival. We did get to see folks having fun when we went out and about this morning. There's one old main street through town--the street that has many of the older shops and buildings. The normal buses weren't running down the road, so we walked that stretch instead. There were quite a number of people walking along the road as well. It wasn't all that much more than a typical weekend afternoon crowd, though it did have more of a festival flavor. One thing I did notice is that while that many shops and restaurants were closed up this weekend, the smaller shops along old main street seemed to be open, for the most part. I don't know if they just can't afford the day off or if they're taking advantage of the crowd. I suppose the real test will be to see if they are open tomorrow or if they close down like all the bakeries did after the Mid-autumn Festival.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

We're travelin'

Well, we did it. It's taken a year and a half, but we've finally done what all the other expatriates have advised us to do--venture out of our comfy little town and visited some other parts of Yunnan. (Besides Kunming, that is. Kunming doesn't count because everybody travelling to Yunnan will probably pass through Kunming.)

The genesis of our trip occurred last year. The stage was set by the aforementioned friends who advised us to visit around. Then a couple of Yau Neih's students, Gail and Whitney, asked her to visit their hometown of Dali. That in and of itself wasn't unusual. Every student (and a teacher or two) invites us to visit their hometown. The phrase, "Welcome to my hometown," must be in one of the early English lessons. So Yau Neih got the old, "Welcome to Dali." What made this invitation different was that the girls kept asking. Another factor is that both girls have been very helpful and friendly. We started to feel like rats for not visiting. By the time the end of last school year rolled around, we started thinking how we might arrange an excursion to Dali. It never really worked out until we decided to pack it in during the winter break. We already had a "business" trip scheduled to Xishuangbanna, the prefecture in the south of the province, so we figured we could just pack some extra underwear and add Dali as well.

Planning the trip turned out to be incredibly easy--the students took care of all of the details. We had to get the bus tickets ourselves, as the girls had already gone home for break, but even then Gail provided us with a bilingual note we could hand to the ticket vendor. It was part of the packet of information they gave us before they headed home. We even had a hand written itinerary for our five days in Dali.

Of course, the situation wasn't perfect. We had to make some adjustments, the first one being our lodging. The girls had generously offered to put the four of us up at their homes for a few nights of the trip. With some embarrassment Yau Neih pointed out that we really needed to have Western style toilets wherever we were staying. We can only manage the squatty potties with great difficulty. So we made that specific request in our accommodations. I had a slight worry that they might start remodeling their bathrooms, but apparently there was some limit to their hospitality. Not much though, as it turned out.

But that, since I can milk this trip for a number of blog entries, is a story for another time.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Situation normal

Well, the Internet is fixed. So now I can do my taxes and blog about it. The blogging part didn't go quite so smoothly, though. My attempts to log in and create posts were
dreadfully slow. (I was able to find out what my post by e-mail address was, so the next time an earthquake busts the cable, I'll be able to post without having to post an inappropriate photo.) I finally asked Ga Dai to log in to her blog--as she had already switched over to the new Blogger--and she had no problems. So I finally broke down and converted. It only took me two tries. I don't know where the problem lay. Did Blogger move all of their old Blogger pages to an old Quadra they pulled out of the closet to use as a server? Or was my problems with old Blogger due to one of those little glitches that China Telcom was still working on? I'll probably never know. Ah, well. This new Blogger looks nifty enough. And now perhaps I can get caught up with my book review backlog.

So, um, now I've got to write about something. ... Uhhhhhh, let me get back to you on that.