Oddities

A few pics of our trip from Shanghai to Beijing. A couple of them are a little bizarre but I'll repost soon with a little bit of an explanation and a lot more pics. What and where are these 5 pics? Feel free to guess.

Dali

An amazing change from the polluted north, the mountains of Dali served as a much-needed breath of fresh air. I even went swimming!

Guilin

The karst landscape around this town makes it ideal for tourism and mountain climbing

The Dragon's Back

These pics were taken outside of Guilin, China. They are of mountains that have been largely cleared and that are being used mostly as rice fields. It was quite lucky that we came upon them because we were hiking without a map, and it was dark when we arrived at the village. The village is a semi-popular tourist attraction but not yet developed enough to be expensive or unpleasant.

Xi'an's Stele Forest, etc...

These steles are two of about 3000 at the largest stele museum in China. It is located in Xi'an and started with steles from the 7th century A.D. The stones represent a great variety of script, including traditional, simplified, and archaic symbols.

The earliest surviving characters are inscribed in oracle bones and only about a half of them can be related to (and therefore deciphered) later writing styles. These bone artifacts are scattered throughout the world's museums but I didn't see any in Xi'an. There are several legends that explain when and how characters where brought about. One states that they were inspired by different vein patterns, and another suggests that a scholar thought of the idea after observing the distinctive patterns of various bird footprints.

I've been asked by several folks now about what it is like to read from top to bottom. Although Chinese characters, like other East Asian characters, were traditionally written from top to bottom and from right to left, in modern times, due to western influence this is not the case. It is also worth mentioning that over the years, the characters have gone from being pictorial symbols, to traditional symbols (of which there are dozens of versions), and then to the simplified characters used today in mainland China.

The majority of simplified characters were introduced during the 1950's and 1960's. During this same period, Pinyin was also introduced to schools as a method to attach a common pronunciation to each of the characters. It is important to understand that before these changes, the Chinese language consisted only of written characters and scholars' pronunciation (passed down and memorized). This explains why throughout China there are 10 or so major spoken 'dialects' (each of which can be divided into dozens of sub-categories) that are mutually unintelligible. However, as I have traveled to various cities, I have come to notice that youth often use the new standardized Chinese (Putonghua) as their first language, while their elders use the area's accepted 'dialect' and understand as much Putonghua as their job requires. This being the case, most educated Chinese are now bilingual at minimum, but with several generations, the dialects may begin to completely die out. Interestingly, the same process is going on throughout Arabic speaking counties.

Xi'an

The Terracotta Army was discovered by local farmers outside Xi'an in 1974 while they were digging a well. Since then, it has been discovered that the army was buried as funerary art in the years of 209 and 210 BC. The idea was that the army would accompany Shi Huang Di (the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty) in his afterlife and help him rule his next kingdom there. A large majority of the site has yet to be excavated, but it is estimated that there are over 8,000 human figures altogether, not to mention horses, chariots, and other artifacts. The number of workers involved in the project is estimated to be 700,000, many of which are thought to have been buried alive to prevent them from telling others of the tombs. Aside from warriors, there are horses, remains of weapons and chariots, generals, acrobats, musicians, strongmen, and other officials. Each statue is unique and may be replicas of real people and horses of that time.

This was undoubtedly one of the most interesting sites I've visited thus far!!

Goodbye home

This was my home for the last two months. To be fair, this is the back of the place. The front is quite nicer looking and has plants and a sign. I'll be moving from this place to a place a bit closer to town. My new rent will be around 100 RMB a month...but no shower

A bird's eye view...

...well almost. A request was made for "less scenic" photos. Your wish is my command...in time. For now though, here is a collection of photos taken of a view from the top of a mini, very man-made ski slope. I stumbled upon this pile of dirt on an after-dinner stroll around town. The area in which I am living is on the outskirts of the city. There is a pharmaceutical factory, a public park, a storage area for army vehicles, a distant residential area, and a good example of the class difference in the form of living conditions (apartments beside shacks). These are all places within a 5-10 minute walk from my apartment.

Lilacs

Violet and fragrant stem of heaven...
These flowers are certainly a welcome
addition to the previously drab canvas
of Haerbin. Can you spot the butterfly?

Spring's Haerbin

It's springtime again in Haerbin, so...
The race track sponsored by Audi has melted/floated downstream.
It's time for Chinese people to start throwing their trash into the Songhua again.
The amount of people standing outside the government-run employment agency has quadrupled trice.
The smells from sewers, toilets, and trashpiles are seeping back out.
It is actually RAINING!
Strawberries are ripe.
I am warm!
ETC...

Qing Dao

A tiny taste of Qing Dao, China. I spent 5 days away from Haerbin and loved every minute of it. Here are three pictures: one of a sunrise from the base of Lao Shan Mountain, one from the top of the mountain looking down onto a fishing town, and one of Qing Dao city-proper. For me this was a refreshing and much-needed change from Haerbin!

Siberian Sunset

Lovely

hmmm

Had some nice conversation on this road with a mousy German ninja girl.

"Wu Pi Ma"

Win i seen dem dar orses i says te mysayelf...I says, "dem der orses gots to be krishten orses. uduwize dey couldn't be a'walkin on dat dar river!"

Old #3 Junior; Harbin, China

This is one of the public schools at which I taught. From the outside, the building looks quite peaceful...

Sidewalk

Yi Yue (January)

On the bottom floor of the cloth market there are about 200 rooms like this one. Each of the rooms has a different collection of cloth and a different salesperson to bargain with. On the second floor there are tailors who will take your measurements, tell you how much cloth you need, and eventually come up with a custom-made garment just for you. In the last six months I have gotten a suit and a dress shirt made...they are great!

Cooler than a Polar Bear's Toenail

Sycamore

see below

simple stone carving
harbin train station at three
yellow stem and cap
young monk village from a tree
elderly dancers