China
As you may know Sonoma Academy (SA) sends students and teachers abroad each year to experience other cultures, practice a foreign language, explore other landscapes, and generally expand their world view. One of the SA trips this year sent seventeen students plus two teachers - Pam (the Mandarin teacher) and I - to China for these very reasons.
We went to three places in China which highlighted:
1) Beijing - Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall
2) Xi'an - the Muslim Quarter, a Buddhist Pagoda (tower/building), and the Terra Cotta Warriors
3) Chengdu - Dujiangyan Irrigation System, Mt. Qingcheng which is the birthplace of the religion Taoism, and to feed and volunteer at a panda bear preserve
Beijing:
One of the first things you notice when arriving in Beijing is the air pollution! I am writing this in mid-November, Fall 2018 (≈7 months after returning) and we (most Northern Californians) have been staying inside due to the unhealthy air quality due to the Camp Fire near Chico. Many of us have been getting a little stir crazy due to being inside so much and we long for blue skies, clean air, and the chance to get outside again to run, bike, walk, and just sit on a park bench without having to worry about the air quality.
Well in Beijing it is like that regularly. You look out the window and the sky seems continually grey due to either the smog, it being overcast, or both. People wearing face masks to filter the air has become so common that masks have become fashionable! It goes to show that you really can mess up your environment if you're not careful and have to live with the consequences.
Luckily, China is the world's leading producer of electricity from renewable energy sources and its renewable energy sector is growing faster than its fossil fuels and nuclear energy sectors.
Back to our trip though. To start off we met up with a former SA student, Noah, whose family recently moved to China to live aboard. We were lucky enough to get an insider's perspective of what life is like in China.
Here is Noah (out-stretched arms) reunited with many of his old classmates.
We then visited the historic center of Beijing - Tiananmen Square,
and the Forbidden City, where past emperors and his "besties" (i.e. his concubines and trusted advisors) lived
The Forbidden City is an impressive place to visit. According to wikipedia UNESCO has it listed as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world!
We also visited the Bird's Nest (i.e. the center of the Beijing Olympic Games from 2008) as well as the aquatic facility were Michael Phelps set the record of winning the most gold medals in one olympics - 8 golds.
Next we took pedicabs (bike powered carts) through a hutong (a narrow alleyed neighborhood)
a private residence for lunch, where apparently Michael Phelps and Leonardo Dicaprio have visited. Maybe it was the hutong lunch that made Phelps swim so fast..
Next we visited another residence where we learned about the tradition of cricket fighting from a cricket fighting champion,
who was arguably a little off his rocker,
but very entertaining.
Finally, after some shopping and attempting to avoid the freezing cold rain, we had a Peking duck dinner.
Next was our visit to the Great Wall!
We went to a more remote section of the wall, which was a smart move to avoid the crowds at a place called Mutianyu.
Perhaps it was due to the remote location, or our visit being during the week, or because it was so cold (it snowed on us a little on the wall), but the wall was very uncrowded and we had lots of opportunities to enjoy it in solitude - a rare thing from what I am told.
The wall itself is crazy! Construction started over 2,000 years ago and was added to over time. At its longest it was 13,000 miles long - half the circumference of Earth! This was a bucket list item for me and others in our group and well worth visiting.
Speaking of construction in China, there is a lot going on across the Pacific Ocean!
China has and is moving heaven and earth to continue evolving itself into a world super power, and take care of its nearly 1.4 billion people. There is so much construction happening there that our Beijing tour guide, Ray, from Wild China (the outfit we hired to guide out trip) appropriately joked that the national bird of China is the crane. For example Beijing has the second largest airport in the world and yet they have plans to build yet another, larger one.
(internet photo)
The next day we began was visiting the Temple of the Sun where past emperors would make sacrifices for a bountiful harvest.
Practicing Chinese yoyo and Tai-chi in a nearby park was fun too.
Fun but cold ... it was 37ºF out!
The coolest part of the park though was seeing all the all the people, particularly the elderly population, out exercising, dancing, playing hackey sack, and in general being active. Whoever thinks that getting old means you have to crawl into a rest home to wait out the rest of your days certainly hasn't been to China! Like the country's history, longevity is a theme that kept coming up during our trip.
Later that afternoon we went shopping and the students who have been studying Mandarin practiced their bartering skills at the Pearl Market. Some of the more cut-throat students got sweet deals.
We also visited the 798 Art District where we saw lots of street art, industrial sculptures, and coffee shops.
Although vogue art districts are nice, I found the everyday grocery store, Carrefour, that we visited on our last night in Beijing, far more interesting. We got to see what everyday people shop for - the crazy variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, packaged foods, and household items that you never hear about in the USA.
After more haggling at the of Panjiayuan open-air market we visited beautiful Summer Palace in Beijing where the emperors would spend the summer months.
It was beautiful. Although it is 4 times the area of the Forbidden city, 75% of it is covered by a lake which you can boat around on.
We climbed the Tower of Buddhist Incense,
which had a wonderful view of the entire property.
After that it was time to say good-bye to Beijing and our guide Ray to head to Xi'an.
We traveled on an overnight train, which was an experience I care to have only once (cramped, not much sleep, squat toilet on a moving train ... yikes!)
Xi'an:
Xi'an was awesome! Unlike overcast, air-polluted, and overcrowded Beijing, Xi'an was sunny, clean, beautiful.
The historic city center of Xi'an, where we stayed, was very walkable and full of markets, gardens, delicious and aromatic foods, especially in the Muslim Quarter, which is named for the large Muslin population that moved to China from the Middle East via the Silk Road 1,300 years ago.
The historic center of Xi'an is also surrounded by 9 mile long city wall which you can bike on top of! This was the first thing we did after getting off the cramped overnight train from Beijing.
Also during our two days in Xi'an we visited a Muslim mosque,
toured a wealthy traditional Chinese residence
where they took discipline seriously!
And we ate some delicious food, which China is full of. Whoever made up that warning for little kids to finish there plate because "there is a starving child in China" hasn't been to China recently. There was so much good tasting food you couldn't finish it all if you tried.
Also while in Xi'an we also climbed the 259 steps of a Buddhist pagoda
which had an incredible view of Xi'an.
Finally, we of course had to visit the famous Terra Cotta Warriors!
This World Heritage site was impressive not only because of how many warrior statues there are (≈ 8,000 of them) but also because of how old they are (≈ 2,200 years old.)
During our time in Xi'an we stayed in the Bell Tower Hotel,
which, as one might guess, is located right next to Xi'an's Bell Tower. This tower's bell was struck each morning at dawn to signal the beginning of the day.
Not far from the Bell Tower was the Drum Tower, which we climbed, which was struck each evening at sunset to signal the end of the day.
I loved Xi'an! One of my most memorable moments was getting up early on Sunday morning and going for a solo run along the path on the outside of the city wall along a beautiful river path.
The morning temperature was perfect, and the path wound through parks filled with retired people exercising, playing ping pong, doing Tai Chi, and even one guy practicing Chinese calligraphy on the side walk. I am happy to have visited Xi'an.
Chengdu and the Sichuan Province:
From Xi'an we took a high speed train to Chengdu, which was a much better experience than the overnight train. The high speed train was clean, smooth, comfortable, and fast! I think we were going close to 200 mph at top speed!
The first place we visited was the ancient town of Huanglongxi which had a beautiful creek running through it
as well as many wooden buildings and bridges.
As one might expect in the Sichuan province, they sold beautifully colored and powerfully flavored spices, which pretty much summed up the taste of the food for the rest of our trip.
Not only was the food rich, but so was the first hotel in Chengdu we stayed - the Dorsett. It was easily the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in: great views, huge bathrooms, and there was a Lamborghini parked out front when we arrived!
Not to be distracted by riches for too long, we the next day we visited the Dujiangyan Dam, a massive irrigation project that redirects the course of an entire river to that the people of Chengdu can have water. It was yet another example of an impressive Chinese feat of ingenuity and manpower.
(internet image) (internet image)
Next we headed up to the nearby Qingcheng Mountain, which is where Taoism is suppose to have originated.
There are a series of buildings and temples on this mountain that you can cable car/hike up to. Here you can see monks lighting incense and striking gongs. Upon reaching the top there is a tower from which you can see the Chengdu Basin to the east and the clouded beginnings of the Tibetan Plateau to the west. It left the imagination hungering for more!
(internet photo)
After visiting the Dujiangyan Dam and the Great Wall, I began realizing everything in China is big!
It was mind-boogling to see how many residential skyrises there were in each city to house the local people. Imagine a skyrise that can house 150 families or about 500 people. Then imagine clumps of five to ten of these. Then imagine dozens and dozens of these clumps in each city. To give some perspective, the population of China's most populous city, Shanghai, is about 26 million people, which is about 2/3 the population of the entire state of California, 39 million. That's 2/3rds of the USA's most populous state in one city!
Besides population, the history of China is extensive. With 3,500 years of written history China is considered the oldest continuous civilizations in the world! There were multiple times during our trip when our tour guide would tell us how buildings or inventions dated back before Christ (B.C.E.)
There is also a saying in China that goes like this, "If you want to visit 100 year-old China, visit Shanghai. If you want to visit 1,000 year-old China, visit Beijing. If you want to visit 3,000 year-old China, visit Xi'an." We were lucky enough to visit 2 out of 3 of these places.
The flight to China is big too...12 hours on a plane ... WOW!
Ok tangent aside; after hiking to the temple on top of Qingcheng Mountain we checked into the Veiled Prominent Heights Hotel where myself and many of the students felt a sense of peace. The hotel was beautiful, clean, quiet, and peaceful. I'd like to go back there some day.
Our last day of the trip was a highlight for many because that was the day we got to visit the Dujiangyan Panda Base - a preserve that works to protect, breed, and hopefully reintroduce pandas into the wild one day. After watching a film about the status of the few remaining pandas in the world we understood the importance of these panda preserves and how close to extinction these bears are. After cleaning their cages, and breaking up bambo, we got to feed them.
Oh boy, I hope they don't go extinct. Being so up close and personal with these balls of fur really lets you see how special they are!
We finished that day with an opera which included acrobatics, incredible mask-changing performances, and a musical shadow-show.
Finally it was time to return to our hotel to pack up and head home the next day.
If I had to name a few of the main take aways from this trip they would be:
- There is a lot going on across the Pacific Ocean (i.e. in China) and it was so good to get out of my own little world to see what else is happening in the world!
- Everything in China is big - the country, the number of people, the food served at each meal, the economy, and the history.
- After seeing the poor air quality in Beijing, I really appreciate and want to preserve the environment (greenery, clean air, protected open space) here in Sonoma County.
Xièxiè China. Xièxiè.
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