June 12-13, 2011 - Guangzhou (the city the British once called Canton)

June 12-13, 2011 - Guangzhou

So yes, I know I am continuously blogging from further and further behind...but...I'm doing the best I can.  Guangzhou was a really neat city - it's very far South...not far from Hong Kong and is a very rapidly developing city.  I have a seoncd almbun I am readying for my next blog post and promise to have more detailed explanations/descriptions of my time in Guangzhou there..but for now, enjoy my pictures from our first day and a half in Guangzhou - we did more than is featured in this album...but rainstorms and the banning of photos in some of the museums makes it tricky. 

What I loved least about Guangzhou would be the crazy humidity level, inability to feel dry, and the frequent rain.  What I loved about Guanzhou was the beautiful lush greenary that was seemingly everywhere - the parks, the freeways, and sprouting from all of the aprtment rooftops and balconies!  it was a welcome brightness after the drabness of smoggy Beijing.

More soon! 

The Great Wall of China

Well, according to Mao, I am now a man!  I hiked up to the Great Wall of China at Mutianyu today and then walked along the wall among several watchtowers, all while breathlessly in awe of the incredible view and the epic, winding man-made fortification that stretched endlessly in front of me!  There are multiple places in which you can visit the wall – we visited the Mutianyu section.  It was quite a climb up, although the scenery was very peaceful and beautiful…but you were automatically dripping.  We were all absolutely soaked through by the time we reached the top.  It was a hazy day – but the sleepy mountains around the Great Wall were still beautiful.  The portion of the wall had been fortified and built up during the Ming Dynasty (14th-17th century)...the wall itself was developed from the 1450s-1560s to strengthen the empiere's defense against the Mongols.  The Great Wall was originally built under Shi Huangdi's guidance during the Qin dynasty back in the 200 BCE's...but the original, not altered sections of Qin wall are very remote and hard to reach. The wall wasn't perfect, and it didn't fully protect China...but it does showcase China's ability to utilize resources.

The Great Wall was amazing, and we had a really wonderful time...but I will let the photographs speak for me...
enjoy!

Click on the image below to view the album!

Great Wall Pics

Temples and Palaces and Imperial Dinner in Beijing!

Beijing has been an interesting experience…it is not an ancient hub of China, but more a key location for modern and contemporary history.  The city is quite full of people, as every city in a country of 1.4 billion people would be, but was not as  populated as I anticipated.  The inner circle is about 6 million people, and if you include the outer lying areas of Beijing it’s about 12 million or so.  As the capital it is a destination many families from the country side are choosing to visit, so some of the major historical sites have a pilgrimage feel to them and many of the people we have encountered at the monuments are actually not from Beijing.  The smog and pollution has been staggering and I have been in true disbelief of how truly truly thick and ever present the smog can be – at moments I have had visions of the movie Mist…it really can be nearly that bad.  The smog swallows up whole s buildings, trees, even skylines here.  The people have been very kind and many have been friendly…we have been photographed many times, (although not quite as ridiculously as when I went to the pyramids), and the people have been outright helpful.  Today I visited the great wall and was very grateful when a woman picked up the lid to my water bottle (which had fallen off and rolled down fifty or so stairs) and handed it to me as she walked by.  The children are very eager to practice their English and have been very sweet – and the affection parents have for their children has been wonderfully evident in their interactions. 

The WHA conference was ultimately a success for me in that I walked out with new ideas, new contacts, and for the first time since the end of my harrowing school year, some excitement about my courses and students next year as I have started brainstorming new activities for my AP European history students and am steadily evolving the curriculum unit I will be writing for the China Institute and using in my world cultural geography course.          
                                         
 We have spent several days attending the WHA conference in the morning and then spending our afternoons visiting various historical or cultural sites.  One of the days we visited the Temple of Heaven – which was the Imperial temple the emperor would visit to ensure that the Mandate of Heaven was not lost and that he honored the power bestowed upon him accordingly – the most important ceremony was when he would go and appeal for a good harvest – everything had to be done in a precise way.  And he was carried in to the complex up to the certain point.  It was really a beautiful complex and we really enjoyed our time there. 

July 9, 2011 - The Temple of Heaven

The next afternoon we visited the Summer Palace and the palace Yuan Ming Yuan that was destroyed by the British as a byproduct of the second Opium War. The first summer palace was mainly a Ming dynasty creation and its opulence truly demonstrates the corruption of the leadership…the key symbol of this is a marble boat that had been commissioned by the empress dowager. 

The second palace had absolutely gorgeous park grounds –stretches and stretches of Chinese willows, and ponds full of beautiful flowering lily pads…it was stunning and incredibly peaceful.  And then, throughout the gardens there were bright cloth creations that I can best liken to parade floats maybe?  …You’ll see in the pictures.  After that we reached the ruins of the palace the British had razed…and it is devastating.  It’s not just empty buildings…we’re talking chunks and chunks of once ornately carved marble haphazardly strewn all over. 


For dinner that night we went to Baijia Dazhaimen, a restaurant that fully mimics the imperial court during the Qing Dynasty – from the place settings, to the servants and their attire, to the ingredients in the food.  It is all in a beautiful garden – it was amazing!  We had so much fun!  And at various points performers would come in, again with time period appropriate performances – we had singers, another mask changing ceremony, dancers, and instrumentalists, all at different times. 

July 10, 2011 - Summer Palace, YuanMingYuan, and an Imperial Dinner

Night Markets, 798, Buddhist Temples, and Confucianism

The Night Market was not a sight for weak stomachs.  We visited Donghaumen the government monitored open Night Market for an adventurous evening snack.  Stretching for several hundred yards, there were stands boldly baring foods from fried silk worms, frozen fruit sticks, sheep kidneys, starfish, sea horses, snakes on a stick, sea urchins, skewered sharks, bubbling drinks, fried banana dough, even fried scorpions on a stick.  Yes...I said scorpions. 

We worked our way through the market, daring each other to indulge - I tried a few things - bubbling pear juice that looked like it had been plucked from Hogwarts, mystery fruit (that was DELICIOUS), fried banana dough, a veggie dumpling... and I have lived to tell the tale.  My colleagues tried everything from snake to cuttlefish to scorpions and silkworms...and some of them are a little worse for the wear from the experience...

The next day we set out for 798, the contemporary art district in Beijing.  Originally a munitions and industrial area designed by Easter Berliner architects over the past decade, this district has become an absolutely thriving and blossoming hub for aspiring contemporary artists and a showcase for international artists as well. 

Our guides were fantastic and we visited multiple galleries (as you can see in the pictures) and then were given free time to wander the area, and I thoroughly enjoyed ducking in and out of some of the intriguing and compelling galleries. 

We enjoyed another fantastic lunch and then headed into a Buddhist temple that sits North of the Forbidden City and has a staggering 70-80 foot high Buddha at the Northernmost point.  I also enjoyed comparing the Buddhist temple in Beijing with the Buddhist temples I visited in Korea from the way the Buddhas are depicted, the layout of the temples, the practices/interactions of the visitors...there are some intriguing differences and commonalities. 

After that we visited the Confucian temple that had been built during the Yuan dynasty and functioned as the Imperial temple during the Ming and Qing dynasties as well.  Confucian temples are often my favorites - probably because they are centers of learning, scholarship, and respect...

My favorite part was the wooden blocks that lined the bridges leading to the central temple where the emperor woudl sit - each block bore the name of a person hwo had passed the state exam.  There were hundreds, if not thousands...and each one represented a tremendous accomplishment. 

From there we were off to yet another delicious meal - that was a vegetarian buffet and was absolutely fantastic!  I ate my fill of lychee berries ( a new favorite!) and also especially enjoyed some of the various types of mushrooms and eggplant (I don't really like eggplant...but here it is amazing!)

After that we tried to see the author of "When a Billion Chinese People Jump" by Jonathan Watts speak at an English bookstore (that had a very fun atmosphere) called The Bookworm.  We didn't have tickets (it was an impromptu decision to go), but we were able to sit in the cafe and listen to the audiocast - it really was quite interesting. 

On Friday we attended the first day of the International World History Conference and I was very excited to see several of my colleagues from the AP World readings including the textbook author I had spent so many ours working with on the alt exam a few years ago.  The panels have spanned from dry to very intriguing, but I am pleased to say I already have some new ideas for next year....

Day 6 - Night Market

Continuing to Enjoy Beijing!

Well, it has been another full day! And I will just continue to be behind…while steadily moving forward…

My Forbidden City, Nat’l Museum, and Tiananmen album is below. The day after that we spent the better portion of the day enjoying an insightful lecture from Professor Ren and began mapping out our lesson plan projects. And! I survived the Night Market of snakes, starfish, sea horses, scorpions, silk worms, sea urchins, bubbling drinks, fried banana dough, and mystery fruit, and seem to have escape unscathed! (Although I was starving last night because I really didn’t eat much of those things…) Today, we spent the day visiting 798 - Beijing's emerging and blossoming contemporary art district, had a delicious lunch, and visited a Buddhist temple and the Confucian temple for the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and had an amazing vegetarian dinner (I am in LOVE with lychee)...and then we went to an English bookstore to hear from the author of "When a Billion Chinese Jump" - it was really an amazing day and one that I certainly have more information and photographs about for all of you later.

Tomorrow we are off to the International World History Association Conference for a very full day!

Click on the image below to see all the images in the album!

Day 5 - Forbidden City and Tiananmen JPGS

First moments in Beijing

I made it to China! And, I have hacked through the Great Firewall of China!...so I am working with lags and internet kinks...please overlook typos and the speed at which I am able to post...it is incredibly tricky. 

In the Forbidden City

In Tiananmen Square

After several days of orientation and a visit with my grandparents and aunts in New Jersey, we were off to Beijing!  My Turkey jetlag finally caught up with me on the plane and what could have been a brutal fourteen hour plane ride ended up being a blissful time to catch up on sleep – I had an entire row of three to myself and slept about ten of the fourteen hours – it was wonderful!  I also saw some amazing flights on the plane – the polar ice caps, the icy Northern coast of Russia, the Siberian planes, the Southern steppes of Russia/Mongolia, the mountains of Northern China, the Great Wall, and the outlaying model suburbs of Beijing. 

The airport was beautiful!  It was a terminal that had been created for the Olympics and it was stunning.  Before I knew it I had cleared immigration, my visa was approved, and I had my bags!  We were on our way!  We were given a few hours to check into the hotel and adjust and headed out for a dinner at the Laoshe Teahouse – which is named after a famous 20th century writer.  We enjoyed our first meal in China as we sat around the lazy susan watching performances of young girls playing contemporary-ish music with traditional Chinese instruments and stories depicted by shadow puppets.    We were fed…we were jetlagged…we were exhausted – and all slept very well. 

Our first day in Beijing was really quite a day…a fourteen hour day to be exact.  We visited the Forbidden City – which was the imperial palace and capital during the Ming and Qing dynasties – it was amazing to let my brain run through a compare and contrast of this complex with Topkapi…one that coincides chronologically and is really an excellent contrast to consider – I can’t believe I was at Topkapi merely two weeks ago!  I loved the protective critters that were perched on the edge of each building, the beautiful painted color, and the blue signs above each building that were written in Chinese and Manchu characters (the Qings were Manchus).  The smog is absolutely unbelievable here, and the entire palace was enveloped in a haze as we tried to take pictures.

We enjoyed a lunch at a noodle place whose smell was at first quite off-putting, but ended up being a good, hearty lunch.  And then we were off to the National Museum of China that has been closed for rennovation for years until it opened only months ago - so it was really cool to be some of the first to explore it!  It was full of local art, ancient history, communist art galleries, the "Road to Rejuvenation Exhibit" and a Louis Vitton exhibition...  intrigued?  you should be.  My historiographical brain was on overload!  Oh!  And as we had approached the museum, there were whole divisions of policemen gathered (this is on the edge of Tiananmen Square, so this is mildly unnerving)...and then they all marched into the museum together...we later found out they had an entire exhibition of work in the upstairs wing that had been created by these policemen and women...and as we were admiring the works they would come up and profess that the work was theirs and try to explain to us in urgent, excited Chinese the meaning of their creation - it was quite amazing!  We were photographed quite a few times. 




After the fascinating museum, we spent some time in Tiananmen Square looking at the various monuments - it really is a massive square - meant to hold 1,000,000 people.  We actually crossed the road in which the guy stood in front of the tanks on our way to the square - it was quite eerie. 

We enjoyed a Peking Duck dinner...and it was amazing - I really enjoyed the meal.  The restaurant was in a beautifully enchanting section of the city that I am really contemplating returning to on our free night. 

Today we had a lecture on the three traditions in China, which included an overview of the history and most influential policies/thoughts through China's history.  We also had workshop time and started to really brainstorm and develop the ideas for wour lessons that we will be creating.  We spent our evening digging into local cuisine at the night market - as some people from our group enjoyed everything from fried cuttle fish, snake, fried scorpion, fizzling drinks, fried banana dough, noodle dishes, dumplings, you name it. 
I tried to travel to China with very few expectations about what it would really be like - and I am really glad I did...it is far different than I would have imagined in many many ways - more on that later, as I am still wrapping my brain around it all..but contemporary China really is very different than so many people may think...

Off to NJ to begin my next adventure!

Less than 80 hours after returning from Greece and Turkey, Daniel and I were again on the way to the airport...this time to send me on my way for a fellowship I have with the China Institute this summer.  I spent Wednesday and Thursday catching up with a friend I have known since kindergarten and visiting with family.  And I really enjoyed taking a walk around the neighborhood where my grandparents live.  After that I was off to Newark for my pre-trip orientation and have been swept into a whirlwind of meetings and activities to get us off to the right start.  It has been fun, but I am really excited to fly on to China tomorrow morning!!

Don't they look so happy together? 

Claypit Creek from our beloved Blue Bridge in Locust, NJ

All Saints Church...I still just love this church!

Blue Bridge from the Claypit Creek extension of Hawshorne Woods

the path to the dock

we visited the China Institute at NYC today

This zodiacs are an installation by the Chinese contemporary artists Ai Wei Wei - look him up, it's a fascinating story!

Taking a picture with my trusty rat...it means I am clever and intelligent... I guess I will go with it...

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I heard a guide gathering people for a "Sex and the City Tour"..these where the girls congregating

Meet the 2011 China Institute Summer Scholars (minus Caitlin)

Columbus Park in Chinatown

Enjoying my peach bubble tea (green tea + peach flavor + tapioca)

Pell Street

Yum!

digging in and giving the lazy susan a whirl