September 27th, 2011
Today we are going shopping and going to yet another monastary... Oh the adventures that await- We got breakfast and then we went to a monastery in Tongren. It was a very cloudy and chilly day. I scarfed up.We walked all the way to the top of the monastery and the view was beautiful. I took a lot of fantastic pictures.
After we visited the monastery,we went to a Tibetan families' home and they prepared an absolutely fantastic dinner for us. There were these noodles in a delicious tomato salsa-like sauce that was real clutch. I sat with Lydia, Jin-ah, and their whole group. I needed to get away from the "family" for a second. We all spend quite a bit of time together and space is nice sometimes. After we ate lunch-we went to this white stupa and took lots of pictures. There were these little monk children putting firecrackers in the incense burner-it was great. No matter where you are- in middle class suburbia or rural children- boys will be boys.
Buddhist prayer wheels
After we went to the "place" to get thangkas. I bought a thangka with the Buddha of compassion. I could not decide between the tantric sex buddha or the compassion buddha. Rudy and Nicole convinced me that the purpose of the Buddha was to pray for something to that Buddha. Hypothetically- I would rather pray for compassion. Great sex will come. I really need to be more compassionate and I need to be more selfless and helpful to others.The thangka place was filled with beautifully colored and handcrafted thangkas. There was a whole room of them.
After we bought Thangkas, we went to a Tibetan school and gave little Tibetan 5th graders an english lesson-We were separated into groups of 4 and it was me, Jeremy, Katie, and Ian. We taught them tall and short, the days of the week. Example Xinggiyi shi Monday. We sang head, shoulders, knees, and toes. It was precious. After we taught them some english, we went outside and played with them. We jumped rope, played basketball, soccer, and socialized with the kids. Dave kept on shooting the basketball and saying "Wo shi Yaoming, Wo shi Yaoming ( I am yaoming, I am yaoming)."It was real precious. The children were adorable and it was a real cool experience. We are all going to hangout in Dave's room.
Onto Day 6
September 28th, 2011
We went to Kambula National Park. It was quite chilly and windy in Qinghai. The park was really beautiful and scenic, but the bus ride was probably the bumpiest one throughout the trip. We had to go an alternative route because there was a rockslide. We stopped at four checkpoints to take picture. The views were breathtaking and it was hard to imagine that these places were real. There were canyons, a bright blue lake, and steep hills. After we stopped at the four checkpoints to take picture we went on an hour and a half hike through the national park. We passed this village on our hike in which all the houses were made of brick and mud. They were carefully nessled in the mountains.
Sidebar- As we were driving through rural China on a rickety ass bus, Sydney was reading out loud Chelsea Handler's My Horizontal Life. It's a detailed description of some of her more interesting sexual encounters and experiences. A lot of my memories of our fun bus rides are intertwined with Chelsea Handler's scandalous sex life.
All these pictures are from Kambula national park.
Sidebar- As we were driving through rural China on a rickety ass bus, Sydney was reading out loud Chelsea Handler's My Horizontal Life. It's a detailed description of some of her more interesting sexual encounters and experiences. A lot of my memories of our fun bus rides are intertwined with Chelsea Handler's scandalous sex life.
All these pictures are from Kambula national park.
I think one of the most important concepts or a theme of our trip was to really understand the different living conditions, culture, and demographics of rural, Western China. As Chinese language and culture students, we need to understand China as a whole country. From Tibetan farmers and shepherds to Beijing high rollers partying in Sanlituar ( Beijing’s bar street). This is a country so culturally diverse that it is hard to fully grasp what China is. I am trying day by day to put all the pieces together.
First of all, before I say anything. I love America- the idea of America- the dream, civil liberties, freedom, and individuality and many other aspects of American culture....but cultural imperalism breaks my heart. I know it's a result of globalization, but when there's a KFC and/or Pizza hut on every corner in Beijing-it's disheartening. American culture has a lot of positive elemnts to it, but I feel like in some ways Chinese Culture is americanizing. China's traditional culture is long gone, but it's beginning to be a mixture of Chinese and Western culture. Xiahe was one of the purest versions of Chinese-Tibetan culture that we saw on the trip-with little to no western influence. (Present Day-we were talking about contemporary chinese culture in my sociology class. A few of us made the comment that china does not really have a modern culture- our prof quickly addressed the issue. He said it's kind of wrong on a lot of different anthropological and social levels to say that China has no Modern culture- but I understand what you mean what you say that- China does not have a lot of clearly defined elements of contemporary culture.) Xiahe also had poor infrastructure and was relatively impoverished. Does western/american influence correlate do the more modern social and economic development? I have to say yes for the most part. Globalization enables the introduction of different aspects of different cultures throughout the world. China cannot be America's most important trading partner without some aspects of American culture to seep through-not mention worldwide mass communication( internet, cellphones).
On to Day 7-
September 29th, 2011
We went to the Qinghai museum which was of course extremely politically correct especially in reference to ethnic minorities. There was a lot of beautiful artifacts and paintings.We went to a nightmarket which had lots of food-fruit, vegetables, hanging meats, pig heads, chips-the works. We went into a Chinese restaurant to eat and there was dead mouse in the fountain. None of us were really bothered by it...a sign that I've been living in China for two months. A lot of the restaurants that we went to throughout our western China trip had C-grade health reports ( not the one with the mouse though!) Dave made an interesting comment about it. He said "I would not pay too much attention to it. They probably bribed their way out of it." So true. Corruption in China is certainly not unheard- in fact it's mostly who you know. We returned to our hotel in Xining- the capital city on Qinghai province. This was a relatively modern city. Our rooms had not only a shower that was not connected to the rest of the bathroom, but a bathtub. In celebration of this fine advancement and upgrade in hygiene, we all partied in Dave's room in our bathrobes. Marketus told us to meet in the lobby of the hotel at 7:45 for a surprise where we then headed onto Karaoke or "KTV". We had some good laughs and sang some songs. I started to feel congested and felt even worse on Day 8.
Day 8
September 30th, 2011
On day 8, we headed to Qinghai lake. The largest saltwater lake in the China and second in the world. There is no swimming in this lake because not only in the lake extremely important for Tibetan Buddhism, but many Tibetans send the dead into the lake. This is one way that Tibetans say goodbye to the dead. I may or may not have talked about sky burials-so if I did I am sorry for repeating myself. Tibetan Sky burials are when they leave bodies on top of mountains and leave the body for the birds to pick. The reasoning behind this is that you come into the world with nothing and you leave with nothing. Moving on- we took a three hour bus ride there and we rode bicycles 16km around Qinghai lake. It was a very cold day at Qinghai Lake, but it was also very beautiful. The sky was bright blue with a backdrop of snow white mountaintops and pasture. I had my I-pod and just rocked out and biked.
First of all, before I say anything. I love America- the idea of America- the dream, civil liberties, freedom, and individuality and many other aspects of American culture....but cultural imperalism breaks my heart. I know it's a result of globalization, but when there's a KFC and/or Pizza hut on every corner in Beijing-it's disheartening. American culture has a lot of positive elemnts to it, but I feel like in some ways Chinese Culture is americanizing. China's traditional culture is long gone, but it's beginning to be a mixture of Chinese and Western culture. Xiahe was one of the purest versions of Chinese-Tibetan culture that we saw on the trip-with little to no western influence. (Present Day-we were talking about contemporary chinese culture in my sociology class. A few of us made the comment that china does not really have a modern culture- our prof quickly addressed the issue. He said it's kind of wrong on a lot of different anthropological and social levels to say that China has no Modern culture- but I understand what you mean what you say that- China does not have a lot of clearly defined elements of contemporary culture.) Xiahe also had poor infrastructure and was relatively impoverished. Does western/american influence correlate do the more modern social and economic development? I have to say yes for the most part. Globalization enables the introduction of different aspects of different cultures throughout the world. China cannot be America's most important trading partner without some aspects of American culture to seep through-not mention worldwide mass communication( internet, cellphones).
On to Day 7-
September 29th, 2011
We went to the Qinghai museum which was of course extremely politically correct especially in reference to ethnic minorities. There was a lot of beautiful artifacts and paintings.We went to a nightmarket which had lots of food-fruit, vegetables, hanging meats, pig heads, chips-the works. We went into a Chinese restaurant to eat and there was dead mouse in the fountain. None of us were really bothered by it...a sign that I've been living in China for two months. A lot of the restaurants that we went to throughout our western China trip had C-grade health reports ( not the one with the mouse though!) Dave made an interesting comment about it. He said "I would not pay too much attention to it. They probably bribed their way out of it." So true. Corruption in China is certainly not unheard- in fact it's mostly who you know. We returned to our hotel in Xining- the capital city on Qinghai province. This was a relatively modern city. Our rooms had not only a shower that was not connected to the rest of the bathroom, but a bathtub. In celebration of this fine advancement and upgrade in hygiene, we all partied in Dave's room in our bathrobes. Marketus told us to meet in the lobby of the hotel at 7:45 for a surprise where we then headed onto Karaoke or "KTV". We had some good laughs and sang some songs. I started to feel congested and felt even worse on Day 8.
Day 8
September 30th, 2011
On day 8, we headed to Qinghai lake. The largest saltwater lake in the China and second in the world. There is no swimming in this lake because not only in the lake extremely important for Tibetan Buddhism, but many Tibetans send the dead into the lake. This is one way that Tibetans say goodbye to the dead. I may or may not have talked about sky burials-so if I did I am sorry for repeating myself. Tibetan Sky burials are when they leave bodies on top of mountains and leave the body for the birds to pick. The reasoning behind this is that you come into the world with nothing and you leave with nothing. Moving on- we took a three hour bus ride there and we rode bicycles 16km around Qinghai lake. It was a very cold day at Qinghai Lake, but it was also very beautiful. The sky was bright blue with a backdrop of snow white mountaintops and pasture. I had my I-pod and just rocked out and biked.
We ate lunch near the lake and we saw two Tibetans riding horses.
Sidebar-there is a book called Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows. It's an abomination and a complete misreading and misunderstanding of Chinese culture. Throughout our 9-day trip, Syd, Jeremy, Dave,Rudy, and Antoinette read this literary train wreck. Point Blank- Do not try to oversimplify a culture and not everything is as it appears.
Day 9
October 1st, 2011
On our final day in Western China, we earned our food. We picked potatos and put them in bags. It was hard work and I had a runny nose. The family cooked us dinner. Ironically this family made baijiu-white liquor and various members of our group did shots with the family. I did not because of the condition of my health. We flew back to Beijing that night for Ross's 21st birthday. On our way back he called us to tell us that he was having a bad birthday. So being the great friends that we are, we went up to his room to cheer him. As it goes-he had only his shorts on and a lady friends in the room. Can you say awkward?
But two weeks later I am back and Beijing. Glad to be back. I will write another post soon updating you on the last two weeks. I have written a lot today and need to give my brain a second to rest.
Love you all!
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