Something to Contemplate

For class, we're reading Lin Yutang's My Country and My People. I love it. It's certainly not politically correct, but at the same time it's certainly correct. And I just hit this passage and decided I would share it with you.

There is no doubt that the Chinese are in love with life, in love with this earth, and will not forsake it for an invisible heaven. They are in love with life, which is so sad and yet so beautiful, and in which moments of happiness are so precious because they are so transient. They are in love with life, with its kings and beggars, robbers and monks, funerals and weddings and childbirths and sicknesses and glowing sunsets and rainy nights and feasting days and wine-shop fracas. (103)

And here's another great quote that explains a lot:

The Chinese are by nature greater Taoists than they are Confucianists. As a people, we are great enough to draw up an imperial code, based on the conception of essential justice, but we are also great enough to distrust lawyers and law courts...We are great enough to make elaborate rules of ceremony, but we are also great enough to treat them as part of the great joke of life, which explains the great feasting and merry-making at Chinese funerals. We are great enough to denouce vice, but we are also great enough not to be surprised or disturbed by it. We are great enough to start successive waves of revolutions, but we are also great enough to compromise and go back to the previous patterns of government. We are great enough to elaborate a perfect system of official impeachment and civil service and traffic regulations and library reading-room rules, but we are also great enough to break all systems, to ignore them, cicumvent them, play with them, and become superior to them. We do not teach our young in the colleges a course of political science, showing how a government is supposed to be run, but we teach them by daily example how our municipal, provincial, and central governments are actually run. We have no use for impracticable idealism, as we have no patience for doctrinaire theology. We do not teach our young to become like the sons of God, but we teach them to behave like sane, normal human beings...In one word, we recognize the necessity of human effort, but we also admit the futility of it. (56)

The Great Wall in Amazing Stereo 3D!

Time to break out your funky red and blue glasses!

Make sure that your 3D glasses' red side is on the left ey and the blue side is on the right eye, as pictured above.

These are parallel analglyphs. When the blue image is on the left side it should appear to be in front of the screen, and when the blue image is on the right it should appear behind the screen. The trick to seeing this kind of analglyph correctly is that you have to focus your eyes on a specific point in the 3D space, such as the wall on the right in the first picture (your eyes have to cross slightly). Then you should see that part of the image clearly. You can focus on different parts of the image and they will pop into relief for you. I apologize that I couldn't get everybody to hold still for these, so the people will just be all over the place, except for the last picture of KP and Pooja. Click on the images for a 1600 x 1200 version; the higher the resolution, the more impressive the effect.

Come Ride With Me...

I promised you video, you got video.

This is a little video in the style of Direct Cinema. Allison and I go out to see the Lantern Festival on the last day of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

This is best experienced with a good pair of headphones. The really impressive part is the sound.

Click Here for the Show.

If you get gobbledygook or want to save the video on your hard drive, you need to right-click or control-click on the link and choose "Download Link/Save Target As/Save to Disk".

Temple Fair

Today was the last day of Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival. Allison and I were almost blown up by a giant firework. I have video. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about a sidetrip we took a week and a half ago to another Spring Festival event, the Temple Fair.

Looking across the street to the entrance of the temple.

It's the Year of the Dog, so everything is dog-themed (except the food, luckily).

Everything was festooned with lanterns and fans, and people were walking around with scarecrows, which confused us...but it must have something to do with Spring.

Sugar-glazed fruit skewers are very popular. Most of them are hawthorns, but the ones in the middle had kiwi, pineapple, and a white kiwi-like fruit that's pink and thorny on the outside, and about the size of a mango.

There were a lot of food vendors there. They charged outrageous prices by local standards ($1 US for a skewer), but it tasted good.

Scorpion Skewer, anyone? Not me, I went with the seasoned mutton.

KP's eating what I ate, and Sovannary really didn't like hers, whatever it was.

We stopped to play some carnival games. I got four balls through the hoops and won a dog-mask.

KP got five through the hoops and won a stuffed dog.

Here we are with our prizes.

Eventually I got tired of carrying the mask, so we put it on the dog.

There were a lot of people at the fair. It was a bit like trying to walk in a subway car.

The Temple Fair is a tradition that's been around forever and used to be held on a monthly basis. After the Cultural Revolution it was banned, because taking place at the temple gave it a sense of organized religion (these days, individual-practiced religion and visiting temples seems to be completely kosher, but organized religion is still taboo). Anyway, the people complained and now they are allowed to have Temple Fairs once a year during Spring Festival.

That's it. Someday I'm going to import all of my video of fireworks and then you'll see how ridiculous it is here. Today was the last day for fireworks. Can't say I'm not relieved, but it's a little sad. Hopefully they'll keep this going next year because it was a lot of fun.

Blue Skies

After Monday's snowstorm (which was beautiful — I took a lot of pictures, but it'll be a while before I post them), it's been quite crisp and clear in Beijing, and for the first time, I have been able to see past the apartment buildings across the street. I discovered that there are mountains in the distance, and that you can see the summer palace from our window:

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I commute to work on the train. The ride usually takes about an hour. First I take a taxi to Wudaoko (usually with KP, Juli, and Becca), and then the lightrail to Xizhimen station. Then I transfer to the subway and go to Fuxingmen, and finally I take another subway to Babaoshan.

After I get off the subway I walk across the street and I'm at work. I'm interning at China Radio International. CRI is the Chinese equivalent of Voice of America. It broadcasts throughout the world, particularly in Australia and Africa. My job is to correct grammar. Sometimes I do voiceovers (you know, when somebody is talking, and then someone translates it into English, I'm the English translation guy). KP's coming with me tomorrow, so maybe I will have somebody to ride the train with, if she starts there too.

The building is very impressive. We are on the least impressive floor though, which is the fifth floor, the floor right above the atrium (the bottom floor of the three tower thingies). The reason it's unimpressive is that the balcony blocks our view so we can't see much out of the windows. It's a nice building though. It gets confusing inside because everything is symmetrical. But fortunately, if you walk in a circle you will eventually find what you are looking for. They have a cool little museum that has artifacts such as Mao's loudspeaker from the Founding Ceremony of the P.R.C..

North China Trip Part IV — Pingyao

After we left the Qiao Family Compound, we drove for about an hour until we got to the ancient walled city of Pingyao. The city claims to be 3000 years old. They're very proud to be a world heritage site, and it's created a major tourist draw for them. As a result, it's a bit too touristy — every restaurant boasts that English is spoken and Western Food is served (and western food in China is generally a thing to be avoided if one values one's bowels).

Still, it's a living city; people have houses and live and work within the wall, which blocks out the noise and high-rises of modern Pingyao. It's wonderfully (if not pleasantly) dirty and chaotic, and staying at our hotel felt like living in China hundreds of years ago (although we had indoor plumbing and television).

Pingyao is the only city left that has an intact City Wall. All Chinese cities used to have them, including Beijing. Southpark had one too, in case you saw that episode.


This is me, standing in the middle of the street outside our hotel.

This is the inside of our hotel, which was made up of four courtyards like this one. Lidya is in red in the middle.

The door to our room.

The entry way to our room.

Each room has one large bed, which is basically a giant mat. It's just like the beds in the Forbidden City.

A street. I like streets in China. They all have a very strong character.

Another street.

Flags and incense in the banking museum.

An old church.

A gate, decorated for the new year.

Left to Right: John ("John Bike"), Pooja, Emily, KP, Sovannary, Dave, Nick, Nick ("ROTC Nick", my roommate), and Becca

A donkey near the alley behind the wall.

Three cats hold court on a roof.

There were a lot of people playing pool out on the street.

9 carved dragons. The 9 dragons show up all over the place. They have symbolic meaning.

KP and I standing in front of the main drag. A pretty bad picture, really.

Rows of houses.

We happened upon a lot of interesting instruments of death. Here is a falling spikey thing, operated by Sovannary and KP.

KP and Pooja push the giant rolly spikey thing.

I didn't have much trouble looking worried about standing in front of it. Notice that both of them are marked with a Yin Yang symbol in rivets.


Back at the hotel we ate dinner by candlelight, because the power went out.

After that we warmed ourselves by the traditional new year's fire.

Then it was time for more fireworks.

My favorite picture that I've taken so far on this trip.

Most of the kids hung out in this bar. The owners loved them to death because they spent hundreds of yuan.


KP, John, Julia, and I went to this International Bar and shared Chocolate Cake, Banana Flambe, a Banana Split, and a Yogurt/Muslix Sundae with Asian Pears in it.

I took this picture on the way back to the hotel.

Steppes on hillsides, as we drove back to Beijing.

Nearing Beijing, the landscape gives way to cold desolation. But there were a lot of fireworks among the trees, so somebody lives around here. It was interesting that during the entire trip, we didn't see a single square inch of land that hadn't been dug up, flattened, tunneled, paved, irrigated, or otherwise touched by human hands.

North China Trip Part III — Qiao Family's Compound

After we left Jinci Temple, we went to see the Qiao Family's Compound. This is where Zhang Yimou filmed Raise the Red Lantern. At first we got a little lost, went down a street full of flags and ended up in a strange courtyard full of gourds. It was a bizarre little museum in the end, with a lot of posters from the movie and wax figures, and traditional furniture with televisions sitting on top of it.

The street of flags. This is a New Year's thing.


Gourds for sale, I guess.


An empty street near the compound, that I liked because it felt mournful and desolate in the howling wind.


All the doors within the compound are surrounded by beautiful carvings.


This wax figure is very dedicated to his studies, which would have consisted mostly of Chess and Calligraphy, according to the information posted.


Everyone's best Kung-Fu pose.

Next up: Pingyao, the neatest place so far.

North China Trip Part II — Jinci Temple

The next day, we hopped in the bus and kept driving. It didn't take long for us to reach Jinci Temple. We got out and walked through the front gate, and found...

A very vocal camel

After that we walked through a park area and came upon an enormous statue of horseman-warriors. Then we continued into the actual temple area.

Here I am in front of the statue.


Tall Nick and John Bike (nicknames to differentiate them from myself "John Starr" and my roommate "ROTC Nick) walking along the edge of the Eternal Life Spring, which keeps the water here from freezing.


A willow backlit by the sun, reflected in the water.


Will, Pooja, and KP in front of the Pagoda.


A picture of me overlooking the temple grounds.


The tiled roofs have patterns.


Just a neat picture, looking down from the temple.


Everyone is supposed to pat the head of this Buddha for good luck.


The pagoda reflected in the lake.


Julia, from Russia, and Will in the background.


A statue of a dog guards the staircase to the temple.


A real dog enjoys the new Year of the Dog.


A red flag backlit by a red sun in a red sky.

Next time in Part III: The Qiao Family's Compound

North China Trip Part I — Taiyuan

Here in China, it's a nonstop party because of the Chinese Lunar New Year. It's also Winter Break/Spring Break for PKU, so our professors went home to spend time with their families. As a result, we really couldn't have class. Instead, we went on a trip to the ancient walled city of Pingyao, which claims to have a 3,000-year history.

One of several entertaining signs. My other favorites were "Watch Out for Black Spot" — referring to black ice, I guess — and "Our Company's Fruit is the Van of Success", which I think was supposed to say "The Fruits of Our Labor Are the Vehicle of Success"

My attempt at taking an interesting photo of the inside of the bus.

We saw two giant nuclear power plants, which sheep grazing around the smokestacks and pagodas overlooking them from hilltops. Everywhere in China there are smokestacks belching steam and soot.

On the way, we stopped in the city of Taiyuan for a traditional New Year's feast with a host family. We broke up into groups of two or three. I went with KP and Deborah.

This is where our host family lives.

For Spring Festival dinner, we made jiaozi (boiled dumplings). First you have to take a hunk of dough and turn it into a thin cylinder. Then you break it into small chunks. These you roll into balls. Then you squash the balls with a roller. After that you put meat and vegetables inside with Chopsticks, and wrap the circle of dough around the filling. The standard way is to fold it like a taco and press the edges together, but we found that you could be quite creative, and no two of mine were alike, once I got the hang of it.

Deborah, Me, KP, Ren Meng (aka Mary), and Cao Xinyu (aka Molly)

The girls show off the finished jiaozi.

A closer view of our handiwork.

Some of my creative dumplings.

More of my weird dumplings, my favorite being the flower/star shape.

After dinner, we decided to go set off fireworks, because in China, fireworks are everybody's favorite New Year's pastime. In fact, people have been setting off fireworks nonstop since we arrived in Beijing. The first night, we heard two enormous explosions, and we wondered whether or not we were being bombed. Gradually, the explosions became more numerous, and New Year's eve was the height of the crescendo. People set off explosions constantly and continuously for 48 hours straight. It was ridiculous.

In fact, as I'm writing this, on February 2nd, four days later, there are still tons of explosions going on outside my window. Looking out I see two separate sets of fireworks, and SHEESH, somebody just set off a huge string of fireworks right outside my window!

We did our part:

After that we walked back to our hotel. The street was all lit up, and people were setting off fireworks all around us. The fireworks got really intense around 9 o'clock, and they escalated continuously until midnight, after which they continued unabated until 3 AM, and then escalated again at 6 AM. You have never seen anything like it, and you will never see anything like it in America. Even the fireworks show at the Sydney Olympics was outdone in terms of sheer ferocity. Maybe China should try this anarchical method for Beijing 2008.

The street in front of our hotel (red columns).

Fireworks lit up the street behind our hotel (taken from the roof).

Taiyuan's skyline as seen from our hotel room, about 10 PM

That's not fog, folks...that's smoke from the fireworks.

OK, that's all for this post. You may have noticed some changes. I redid my site so that it renders properly in Internet Explorer (I hope) because IE can't resize images on the fly, and it can't handle PNG images. I made the page wider so that 500 px pictures from Flickr don't have to be resized. And I replaced my sliding doors CSS setup with plain JPEGs, so hopefully IE users can see my top banner, which I have changed to a picture from Pingyao.

I'll cover Pingyao and the rest of the trip in an upcoming post. Till then, zaijien!