Prices

2 Sep 06

There is not much to report from today. I convinced Zeneta to go outside with me and we went shopping.

We got Michelle to come along with us and the three of us hit several shops in an attempt to get the things that Zeneta had on her list. Instead of starting with the large shops, we made an attempt to shop at several of the smaller places.

Although I do not need it at this time, I did see (or at least I think I saw) a place to get my hair cut. It seemed to be identifiable by the sign out side that had a picture of a large pair of scissors and the barber-style chairs inside.

After shopping we returned to our apartment and read for a while. As I looked at the book I was reading, I saw one of the reasons that the US has trouble competing in this marketplace. The book, Mario Puzo's, The Fortunate Pilgrim, it cost 67 Yuan. This comes out to a price, after conversion, which is very close to the cover price in USD. The trouble with this is that the economy here is different and people do not earn as much in converted dollars. It also bears mention that normal, non-imported product, prices also reflect this lower price scale. As a couple of examples: a large banquet dinner for eight people, with many leftovers, cost 260 Yuan, Daily groceries typically cost about 10 Yuan, and we do not have the local knowledge to shop cheap, a breakfast of noodles, at a street cafe, cost about 1-4 Yuan, and our bicycles cost about 450 Yuan for two, better than average, bicycles. With this in mind, 67 Yuan for a book is an extravagance.

We still do not have our Internet enabled computer fixed. The silly part is that all I want out of it is the information out of IP config. Then I will probably put it in another room or set it to running some distributed computing and remove the monitor and keyboard.

Zeneta did go over to Michelle¡¯s apartment and used her computer for a bit in order to send messages to people in order to let them know that we are in China and doing fine.

The Australians have left

Michelle has gone home for good. She only intended to stay for one year. It was rather fortunate that there was a schedule error that left her without classes for about eight weeks. This gave her the time to tour Asia.

She returned and within, what seemed like, a few short weeks was preparing to be on her way out again.

The Brown went home for the summer as have Des and Lynn. The result is that the Foreign housing building seems pretty quiet.

Shopping in Wuhan

06 Jan 07

As many of you know, I ended up working this weekend. The reason really made no sense to me, or the other westerners; however, it seemed to make perfect sense to the Chinese.

We worked Saturday and Sunday so that we could take Tuesday and Wednesday off, following the holiday on Monday. The thought, on the minds of all of us westerners, was, why not just take Saturday and Sunday off? Instead, this goofy approach messed up all of our schedules, their schedules, and, undoubtedly, the schedules of millions of people across the country. I really think that the reason was just to do something different; whatever the reason, I worked Saturday.

I would have also had to have worked on Sunday, except that I traded classes with another teacher. Julia has several of the same classes that I have.

Remember, the students are assigned to a class group at the beginning of their college life and that class group is given a number (easy enough, I have classes one through five). They then attend all of their classes, and many out of class activities, as a group.

Because she, Julia, also has classes one through four, we were able to make a trade in the classes. This left us both with classes on only one day, I did Saturday and she did Sunday. (And no, Julia is not her real name. However, her family name sounds a bit like Julia, it is a name that I can pronounce, and the students know who I am talking about when I say, "Julia." [Even if they do laugh when I say it]).

An example of the, out of class, activities, that are attended as a group include the Friday that immediately preceded this weekend, in which I had to work. The student classes reserved large rooms at the college and held various parties. As a teacher I moved between the groups that were, generally about two classes, or about a hundred students. Some of the parties focused on, student produced, skits and dances. There were a lot of song and musical instrument recitals. Some of the classes got together and watched movies on the large, projection screens (there is a… um… "Free" web site there in China that allows a person to watch any of hundreds of movies, there is a reason that this site is unusable for my classes; however, it allows anyone with web access to watch them. So, the students start the projector and the movie, and then they enjoy free theater.).

On Saturday I then showed Titanic. I used some discs that were purchased here in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />China. So, to no surprise, they did not work well. They are copies and are not good ones. Toward the end of the movie the disc froze. The good part was that it really was the last scene, I still was irritated. One part of the movie was sort of funny. I have mentioned the disregard for heat in the classrooms; as it happened, there has been a bit of a cold snap and the classrooms never got above 40f all day. So, at the end of the movie, when everyone is in the water and freezing, I looked around the room and observed that everyone watching the movie was freezing, right along with the actors on the screen.

I ended up showing the film twice, this allowed me to show it to four of my classes; like I said, I was doubling up my classes. I first showed it at 10am and a second time at 2:30pm. It really felt like I was running a theater.

On Sunday, because I had made the arrangement, I had no classes. Instead I went to the usual meeting with some of the westerners, which we hold on Sundays and then returned to my flat in order to do some writing; I also did quite a bit of lounging around and reading. (Wow, it is hard to type this, my fingers are cold; thus I am producing a lot of typos. Therefore, my usual, very slow, typing, is slowed even more by the number of corrections I am making.)

Monday was a rather normal shopping trip. Ellen, a female student of Michelle's, went with us and provided quite of bit of help. It is always funny when you ask for help finding something. All I wanted was some spices and vinegar. I ended up being brought vegetables, soup mix, and other things that I can not remember or identify (they seem to be food), in the pile were my spices and vinegar; so, I did not complain.

It was at that time that Michelle and I discussed the possibility of an upcoming trip to Wuhan. We are both considering purchasing backpacks for our, upcoming, winter break. We were initially planning to purchase them when we arrive in Xian, while we are on vacation, and still may do that. However, there is some logic in purchasing them ahead of time so that we are not left carrying two pieces of luggage. I would also like to visit the museum in Wuhan. One thing that has disappointed me, in China, is the lack of museums. According to the travel guide that I borrowed from Debra, there is one there.

That night I went to dinner with He Zhi Qing and some of her dorm mates (There, a real name for those of you who complain that I do not include real names. She tends to ask me to call her HZQ because I often mangle her name so badly.). Even though her roommates are not English majors, instead they are majoring in Chinese, they speak English well enough to communicate.

We did not go where we had planned because the place was full. Instead, we went to another nearby restaurant. From her I am learning to identify restaurants (not always as easy as it sounds) and going to more "authentic" places. She is the same student that took Debra, for several hours, and showed her what the student dorms look like.

We (He Zhi Qing, her roommates, and I) made plans to go on Tuesday and walk around the city; however, it was snowing so we called it off. In all, the vacation was too cold to enjoy.

That night, I had a slight problem. The house phone rang, I differentiate that from my cell phone, which is used for almost all communication. The house phone is primarily used for calling people on campus, and in the dark, while stumbling to answer it; I stepped on the power supply for my computer. Not only was it a wrong number, as most of my house phone calls are, but I broke the power supply. Breaking the power supply prompted me to write this letter to my good friend from High School; and all around Mac Genius, Mike.

Last night when getting up to answer the phone, it was a wrong number, I broke the connector on my Macally power supply, I long since replaced my Apple supplied one.

This power supply has a plug in the end that connects to the supply; so, the cord that plugs into the computer also unplugs from the supply. It uses a non standard plug. However, I am first going to look for the plug, if I can not find it I will solder the cord directly into the supply.

My question is this; the cord that connects to the Mac has one strand and a shield (thus, two conductors). I am assuming that the shield is negative and the core is +24VDC@2A. Looking at the tip I see it as having three elements, a shield, as is found on an RCA audio connector and a plug in the center that is similar to a stereo headphone connector, just smaller. This very small plug has three elements. What should the voltage be at these various points? (Yes, I checked the apple site, it has no real useful information on this that I was able to find)<>

I got a response from him that advised that, seeing as the part is made in China, that I should replace it in China. He also included some helpful information. However, by the time that I received his response (remember, the time is almost opposite here [gmt +8]) I had already gone into town and gotten it, sort of, repaired; prompting this letter.

The really funny thing is that a lot of the stuff made here is not available. When it is, it costs more than it does, after conversion, in America. As an example, I saw an iPod Nano (4gb); after conversion (of course, it is priced in RMBs [aka, CNY]) it would have cost $280USD. What I was told is that the stuff is first shipped to the states and then shipped back to china, where it becomes an import and is subject to very steep taxes.

I did manage to get it fixed. There is no "do it yourself" culture and near all tools are only sold to licensed repairmen. As such, I took it to a computer repair shop and HE ZHI QING (my student, I can not pronounce or spell her name) was having trouble telling them what I wanted done because the idea of fixing something was totally unknown to her.

Finally I walked behind his counter (with permission, if he understood what I was asking) and picked up his solder sucker, soldering iron and Multimeter and started working on it myself. After I had it all positioned I let him solder the parts together (and he did a terrible job of it). She was laughing the whole time; it seems that this is not the way things are done here

I suspect that I will hear about this in class... However, it is now working.

That Wednesday, after we had canceled our plans to wader about the town on Tuesday due to the snow; He Zhi Qing, more of her roommates, and I went to go and get this done. To go into town she first tried to hire a three wheel cab; however, the driver would not budge on the price so we took the bus. We then went to get the repair done, which was the, afore mentioned, ordeal.

After we did that she insisted that I go and eat lunch. While I had not eaten lunch I could have done very well to miss that meal (I have lost about seven Kilos since I got here, then I pretty much stopped loosing weight). However she was very uncomfortable with my having not eaten (she, and her friends had eaten before we met) so I had some soup that she ordered for me at a lunch counter.

[Then people ask why I hate using windows. Here I was typing along and I get a message that the windows OS had encountered yet another error and has closed word. I only lost a little because I save often; however, this does not happen on my UNIX, a real OS, based Mac …oh where was I…]

After we did some shopping, I decided that I needed more long johns, we went for a walk. The only problem with wearing the long johns is that it tends to reduce my level of empathy with my students. After all, I am not freezing, there is no reason that they should be acting like they are (other, possibly, than that the room really is freezing).

The walk we took led through one of the larger city parks and a small bamboo forest that had several footpaths leading through it. It was, obviously, a popular place for young people to stroll.

We then walked along the river; stopping at a playground to enjoy the exercise equipment (me v. them on the teeter totter was funny, if not a bit embarrassing). I took some pictures of the old city wall and we also did a bit of other shopping (I needed some eggs, which are not sold in cartons as they are in the west) and I returned to my flat.

We had walked quite a bit, including the entire return trip, however, it was fun. Even better, when I plugged in my, newly repaired, power supply it worked!

This week was obviously a short one for classes, consisting of only two days. We talked about many of the terms used in Titanic. I discussed the, upcoming, exam in my class. However, I was not able to use the material that I normally use in the second half of my class. I normally use a podcast from a pair of Doctors in Linguistics in Los Angeles.

I use the audio skit in their program and then build more lesson material around that. I was not able to do this for one of the very reasons that you have not received these blogs in some time. The internet connection to China has been very slow as a result of a damaged cable in Taiwan. This is making the access to may websites, the sending, and receiving of both audio and pictures nearly impossible.

I hope that this is repaired soon and I will be able to send pictures of Wohan.

This afternoon, this being Saturday, I got a call from He Zhi Qing asking if I wanted to go on a bike ride with them. They are, of course, her and a couple of her roommates. One of her roommates did not want to ride and, apparently, claimed that she did not know how to ride a bike. So, she rode on the rack on the back of the bike. It is amazing, to me, to see how often people ride on the cargo racks on the backs of the bicycles. They are clearly labeled that they are not capable of holding people; however, many of them are padded and there are often handles and footrests on them. We are not talking of carrying small children, we are talking of full sized (well, fill-sized means something a little different when talking of Asian women) adults.

They generally ride on these racks by riding side saddle and mount after the bicycle is moving slowly. I have a cargo basket on my rear rack so I have not carried any passengers.

So, we rode the three bicycles, with one passenger, to the local lake. However, none of us wanted to pay the entrance charge so we then headed back on the other side of the river to see the construction on the Pagoda that has been in many of our pictures. When finished, it will be a temple.

While riding we noticed that He Zhi Qing's bicycle had a flat tire; so, as I rod off in search of a WC she went and borrowed an air pump from a repairman. I was under the impression that she had the tire repaired until we had ridden several blocks; only to discover that her tire was flat again. At that point we went looking for a repairman and were unable to find one and ended up back at the same person that had loaned her a air pump earlier.

By the time we returned, it was too dark for the repairman to see well enough to find the flat, he was completing the work he was doing by the light of nearby cook fires. I quickly dismounted the tire form the rim, it is normal here to leave the wheel on the bike while going the here, and located the hole by wetting my hands with water he provided me. I than roughed the area of the hole and he put the patch on for her. This was all done by the light of my torch (silly Brits' insist on calling a flashlight a torch). Instead of using the patches we are familiar with, he used a section of tube that one of the girls cut to the shape that we needed, he then poured some cement on the tube and used the cut portion for a patch. All I can say is that it worked.

While we were doing this it was getting darker rapidly. In addition, I received a phone call from Ilwn, a graduate student, reminding me that I had planned for him and Merry, one of my students, to have them over for dinner. So, once repairs were completed, we rode back, rather quickly, in the dark. I will point out that I do not recall seeing a single bicycle light in the country. Other bikers, in the dark, are the real scare when riding this way.

At that point He Zhi Qing and one of her friends joined us for dinner. They cooked, which made it a very easy night for me. However, I was getting a bit tired, and I expect that I was looking it. We also looked at the on-line train schedule and determined what train we wanted for the trip to Wohan.

Today, Sunday, I went to our Sunday meeting. After that, the Browns and I watched a movie, "The Bodyguard." I then went for a bike ride with Walik. I prefer to take my bike to the store and on local trips, instead of relying on the bus service. It just leaves me with a bit more freedom to do what I want.

After returning to my apartment and watching another movie, "timeline," Walik and I went to dinner. It was pretty much a slow day. Most of my Sundays are slow, which is just fine.

To Chengdu

To ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />ChengDu

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Boarding the train to Chengdu presented no hassles. We had even worked out, in advance, who got what bunk. The bottom bunk is often the most desirable because it has enough headroom to sit up on. This is a great advantage over longer trips. However, there is a surcharge for the bottom bunk; and, because it is the least desirable, the top bunk is the least expensive. It is not uncommon for others to sit on the bottom bunk during the day.

It turned out that the train was very slow and spent quite a bit of the time on sidings. This resulted in a later tan expected arrival time in Chengdu. The total time one the train was about twenty hours.

It surprised us that in the berth next to us were another pair of westerners. They were both Americans. Steph and Deloris were both from Missouri. Sheph was teaching here in China and her grandmother, Deloris, saw this as an ideal opportunity to both spend time with her granddaughter and see China at the same time.

Although we were under the impression that they were staying at the same hostel as we were, it turned out that they were staying at Sams while we were staying at Sims. The representative that met us that the train station discovered this and spoke to a cab driver in order to make sure that they got to Sams without any problems. We were then taken, by cab, to Sims. As it turned out, Sim, the owner of Sims, was on the same train. So, we rode back with him.

Chengdu is definitely a warmer city; we are gradually working our way south. This is good because Sims is a place that is best in the comfortable months. The facility is interesting, to say the least, the bathrooms and showers were a bit of a walk from the room we were in. The place was quite large and while it was apparent that there were quite a few people there we never felt that it was crowded. The entire place had a relaxed feel that seemed out of place, in the middle of a large city, and out of time. It felt like the king of place that one of Joseph Conrad's characters would have stayed in. The entire time that we were there Michelle and I had no roommates so we were able to relax a bit in privacy. This hostel added to Chengdu being one of the best places on the trip.

The next morning we met with Steph and Deloris and went to the Giant Panda Breeding Center. This institute, as the name implies, focuses on the Giant Pandas. Not only were there Giant Pandas, there were also baby Pandas. There were also a number of raccoon looking Pandas that are called Red Pandas. This place is a must visit while in Chengdu.

That afternoon, after returning, we went for a walk. The purpose was both to find a China Construction Bank, which we had no trouble doing, and to find the foreign book store. Somewhere in our wandering we had also visited a large temple and garden that is attached to a monastery. The map we had was, to say the best, not to scale and it lacked a number of streets. So, I ended up asking for directions frequently. That is one good thing that you can say about China, there are a lot of officious looking people with, pretty much, nothing to do and they are generally very willing to help provide directions; of course, the directions are generally wrong.

We did, eventually, find the bookstore. However, it did not have any travel guides. On the way back we splurged and ate at McDonalds ("Mackers," in Australian) and returned by cab.

The return was fine except that the cab driver did not know where to take us and was not willing to admit it. He ended up dropping us near where we needed to go but was unsure about the final kilometer. We ended up in a very happening market section that was preparing for the New Year; think of a block party that extends for about six blocks in all directions. I, again, asked some cops for directions and they tried to help. We still ended up walking for about an hour just looking for our hostel. We found it because we remembered a particular sound stage that was near to the hostel. For all this activity, the hostel was remarkably quiet; I attribute it to the thick parameter walls on the facility.

The next day we, again met up with Steph and Deloris, and another couple, and went to the Giant Buddha. This is a huge, 71m, statue of a seated Buddha and the large grounds that surround it with the many Km's of gardens and walking trails. After we were finished we met with the others we had traveled to the site with and had lunch before our return.

On our return we had a hard decision to make. The decision was that we had to decide if we wanted to continue on to Tibet. Going against this general idea was that we had sent back our winter gear when we were in Xian. Michelle was also not sure if she was going to be meeting a student for a week. After a lot of discussion we decided that this was not the time for this trip. I may make that very trip next year with Zeneta. I was also contemplating a side trip to Vietnam and was still working on the details for that. I was also working against my expected meeting with Debra for a trip to Kaifeng.

The next day was another travel day. Most of the morning was just spent just wandering around and getting some snacks for the upcoming trip. We tried lunch but did not get what we wanted. It was funny, to me, at one of the places that we had gone for lunch while in Chengdu. The waitress came out of the back, saw us, and her expression turned to a form of "oh God, no." she turned and walked back into he kitchen hoping that we had not seen her. A few moments later the person in charge came out and took our order.

We then returned, collected our packs, and walked to the bus stop. The bus eventually got to the train station. However, due to the crown on the bus, we did not see that we were at the station and the bus went several more Kilometers before arriving at the next stop. At that point we ran to the stop on the other side of the road, and down the block, to catch the same number bus and go back to the station. By the time we got back to the station, the train we need was not only at the platform; but most people had already boarded.

The ride itself was rather uneventful. The terrain is the steep rock hills that one often sees in the part of California that I am from. One thing that I did notice was the vegetation was clearly changing. As I moved south it was easy to see the transformation to warm weather, broad leaf plants.

Back to Xian, and away

[I am still having trouble to get the pictures to post, I will work on that later]

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Debra and I, having obtained tickets, packed our bags and, with out great fanfare, departed for the train station. The tickets that we had were, again, soft seat. It seems that while Debra generally travels soft seat between Ankang and Xian she had never located the soft seat waiting room in Ankang. I think that I have just learned what to look for, as I walked straight to it.

It was rather funny, the baggage x-ray machine was simply too small to facilitate the packs that we had so the operator did not look at us and we did not look at him as we ignored his machine. As it was, we were in a bit of a hurry as our train was arriving on the platform when we entered the waiting lounge.

The security procedures are very funny; they have these high tech machines, but no clear procedures. I am sure that the operators are will trained, it is not a matter of not knowing the equipment; it is a matter of not knowing security principles. Bags, such as suitcases and packages are to be placed on the scanner. However, bags containing only food are not to be scanned because it just further crowds the, already crowded, conveyor through the machine. Most shockingly, hand bags, or in my case a camera bag, are also not scanned. This is for different security reasons; they do not want a problem with hand and camera bags being stolen off the conveyor. The final result is that with all of this expensive equipment, a large amount of stuff is not checked at all.

All this being said, the return trip to Xian and the Bell Tower Hostel was rather uneventful. The Bell Tower is a rather clean and well run hostel. It does get a bit loud; but nothing that makes sleep impossible. The only other issue is that it is kept a bit warm. However, compared to the number of places that have no heating at all, this is not a serious issue. The bathrooms are on the same floor as, and near, the rooms and the showers are hot with separate shower rooms for men and women.

The next day Debra was not up yet so I took the bus to the train station to meet Michelle. It took me a while to find the correct bus as I was still having trouble reading train station, which is, "火车站."(rather obviously, My space does not support Chinese characters but blogger does) I then ended up waiting a while as Michelle's train was late. However, by the time she arrived I looked pretty competent navigating the streets and buses of Xian.

We then returned to the hostel, checked her in, and found that Debra had already left. At that point Michelle and I went to the Drum and Bell towers. These are two different land mark towers in Xian that, not surprisingly, are near the Bell Tower Hostel. AT the Drum tower, which we went to second, Debra met up with us. She had no interest in seeing the towers as she had already seen them several times; so, she waited outside of the Drum Tower. From there we went to the Fruit Bazaar near the Moslem Quarter and continued on to some of the nearby shops where both Debra and Michelle purchased simple head shawls (when in Rome…).

From there we took a bus to the Shaanxi History Museum. This Museum has a great display of many of the artifacts from the early digs and the Terra Cotta Army. I was surprised to see a chrome plated sword from the Qin Dinasty. There were a number of arrowheads and a lock work from a crossbow along with several of the support beams from the Tomb and some of the fittings that were used to tie the beams together. If a person goes to see the Terra Cotta army they really should see this museum in order to tie all the details together.

At this point we tried to go to the Foreign Book Store but found that it was closed, we were too late in the evening. So, we went to dinner. About this time Debra announced that she intended to travel in a different direction. She wanted to go north and follow the Silk Road. While I am interested in traveling that route, I am not interested in doing it in the winter.

Michelle and I then went to the train station and purchased tickets to ChengDu together, it is kind of funny, she can speak the Chinese better; however, I can write it better. Together we got the exact tickets we wanted.

The next morning Michelle and I got up early and caught our transport to the Terra Cotta Army site. On the way there we spoke to some Mid-westerners who were on their way to a nearby hot spring. There was a group of six of them, which upon retirement, have come to China together to teach and see China.

Because we had made an effort to get there early, and because this is the off season, the place was almost empty. As often happens at Chinese attractions, there are so many vendor shops set up outside that the attraction itself is hard to find. However, we met a woman who worked that the Museum and she showed us the way to the main gate. I can say that is getting worse. At nearly all of these attractions, and this one was no exception, there is a massive effort underway to increase the number of vendor shops. When they are done at the Terra Cotta Army a visitor will have to endure several blocks of shops between the parking area and the gates to the Park. Even within the park there are vendors running around trying to sell the same items that can be found in Xian for less.

At least the there are no vendors in the halls. The dig is completely covered, in order to protect it. It combined with the, afore mentioned, museum are simply a must see. It is also worth going to the round theater to see the documentary on the making, and eventual looting, of the Terra Cotta Army.

From there we braved the gauntlet of vendors and went back to the buses. The people on the bus made a quick attempt to cheat us by demanding about five times to take us back to Xian as they charged to take us out. At that point Michelle told them to stop the bus because we were on the wrong one (we were on the right bus). They quickly remembered the correct price.

After doing this we went back to the foreign book store, which was now open, and looked at some Chinese study books. When we went downstairs to the popular book section we ran into Debra and all went for lunch. After lunch Michelle and I went to the Beilin Museum. This is a library that boasts the heaviest average weight of all the libraries in the world. The books are stone tablets, and there are a lot of them. It was very interesting and we stayed there until they closed and politely chased us out.

From there we returned to the hostel and began working on finding a place in ChengDu. I used the rather simple method of writing to several hostels and going with the first one that responded. Michelle was pleased that the ones I picked offered pick-up at the train stations. The first response I got was from Sim's Guesthouse on the next day.

On the next day we also walked the city wall of Xian. It was a rather long walk and I was having trouble with my boot. The boot problem became such an issue that the next day I purchased new boots and left the boots that I had been wearing, that were developing a non-repairable hole, behind. The walk around the city wall is along the top of the wall, because it was off season there were not many people on the wall. It is about a 17Km walk that provides an overlook of many parts of the central city (the wall only encircles the core of the city, it does not, in any way circle the new city) that a person would not otherwise see. There were both temples and churches that I did not even know existed before this walk. The wall was built between 600-1300 CE and is intact and very well preserved, even if it has been rebuilt in spots.

This walk was followed by a nap and then Michelle and I went for a walk to some other bookstores that evening. At this point we were looking for some travel guides of the, "Lonely Planet," or, "Rough Guide," series. The other reason for the walk was just to insure that we did not get sore from the long walk earlier in the day.

The next day was our last day in Xian. We went to the Flying Goose Pagoda. This is a large Pagoda and temple within Xian. We were both very impressed by the large carved stone and wood relief's on the walls ( I am often impressed by the work and planning that goes into large 3d stone wall relief carvings[Yes, I realize that all carvings are, by definition, 3d. What I mean is the relief's that have the backs of the items in the relief carved out and things behind items in the foreground, all in one large relief]). One of the monks (who, in general, was busy talking on his cell phone) showed us some of the best places to get pictures. In general, it was a great place to visit. This site helped make this one of the best days of the trip, the only bad part is that this is the last time I saw Debra on the trip. She did not go into the temple with us but left for her own trip instead.

From here Michelle and I returned to the Moslem quarter. We both purchased North-Face jackets while we were here (about $22 USD each). This allowed us to mail some of our winter clothing back to our office. The post office was kind of funny. There is no need to package the items before arriving because they insist on doing their own packing in their own boxes. So, I got to the packing counter and the guy saw me and pulled a whit box out (at this point I did not know that certain colors of boxes mean certain things) and packs my stuff that I am returning: books, clothing, and the broken iPod. I then get to the shipping counter and discover that white boxes are international. It had not occurred to anyone that I would be shipping anything internally. So, I had to go back to the packing counter and get it all taken out of the white box and put into a brown box.

In all, the China Post experience was very useful. At this point I have a good idea of what is involved in shipping things back to the states.

From here we returned to the hostel. While we had already checked out, they were still holding our bags. We both took a quick shower and got to the process of medicating ourselves for a long and boring train ride. I was sitting in the lounge chatting wit a young woman named Nina who I forgot to photograph ad, I expect, I will never see again, from Germany, when it was time to stagger to the train station. When we got to the train station I used my ignorant foreigner act to get into the VIP waiting room (that we were not supposed to use at this station because we were traveling hard [second class] sleeper). After a couple of hours of sitting and reading, it was time to step on to the train to the next major city of our journey.

Going to Xian

Thursday in preparation for my trip to go see Debra, and some travel in China, I went with Michelle and Ellen to do a bit of shopping. About lunchtime, before Ellen was available, Michelle and I went and looked at the various shops in the alley that is off the East Gate, the alley that we often call Diagon Alley (I have later learned that the correct name is Haiyuan). We located some things that we wanted, including mess kits and flasks. At that point we went and ate.

After lunch Michelle contacted Ellen, and informed Ellen that she was requested to come along for a shopping trip. There were several elements of this trip. First, Michelle and I wanted some sheets sewn in a particular manner that would make them more useful at the hostels. Second, we wanted to return to the alley in order to purchase the items that we had identified; which we did, with Ellen arguing the prices for us.

We then took a bus into town. It seems that when Michelle purchased some mp3 players she received some bonus points to use in the store. She wanted to go back for a mop. We also went to the supermarket for some snacks and breads. One other thing we were looking for were zip-lock bags. We have seen them in some places, containing goods for sale, so we know that they exist; however, we have not been able to find them.

We went to a pharmacy, where they have bags of potpourri for sale in zip-lock bags and asked them where they got the bags. What we were told was that there is a person who comes through the business district in the morning, on a three-wheel bicycle (This is differentiated from a tricycle due to the existence of a large cargo box, it is intended for hauling goods rather than a single person.) and sells zip-lock bags. The only advise that they, and the other shops that use the bags, had was to wait at a shop on the regular route, in the morning, and see if he rides by, selling bags, that day.

We then took a cab and returned to our block. Shortly after we arrived back in our flats Ellen cooked dinner for us. And the teacher from South Africa also came up and discussed a laptop computer that he was looking at. It was somewhat low end. However, all he wants to do is use MS Office and email. For under $400usd it looked okay. That amount does not get anything special. It had a 1.8g Pentium processor, 256 Mb of memory (which I advised him to have upgraded to 512), a 40gb HD (upgradeable to 80 for about another $8usd), and a 14.1" screen. I am not sure what a similar computer would run in the states; however, I expect that, if purchased used or closeout, it would be about the same.

Friday I rode my bicycle to the bank and withdrew some money. Part of the reason that I did this was to make sure that I would have no trouble making withdrawals using my ATM card from China Construction Bank, the bank in China that I use. I then went for lunch at a place that I am a bit of a regular and returned to carry my bicycle, the five floors, up to my flat. It is now sitting in the bedroom. While I have taken to chaining it to a tree in front of my stairwell I did not want to leave it there for almost three weeks while I am gone.

Shortly after that, some students started showing up. Ilwin arrived and while he was there Michelle came over to see what I had packed. She, of course, wanted to insure that we did not double pack anything that we only needed one of. Walik came over and visited for a while and, shortly after he left, Merry arrived. About the time that HZQ arrived it was getting time to leave. She finished checking to insure that everything was turned off, in order to conserve energy, and we left for dinner and the train station.

Dinner at the restaurants near the train station are always more expensive that is reasonable, and this one was no exception. After we got out of the cab Ilwin insisted on carrying my pack, I think he was surprised on how much it did weigh. One thing is that it is hard to find much lightweight stuff here. The almost all packing information says not to bring jeans; they just weigh too much. However, there are no real good alternatives, it is jeans or polyester dress pants. After dinner I put the pack on, correctly, and it was much easier to pack.

Going to the waiting room was somewhat funny, HZQ was trying to steer me to the waiting room that she typically uses and I was going to the VIP lounge. So, it was the picture of us, at the entrance, both pointing in different directions with her telling me that we go that way and me insisting that we needed to go the other way. It does not help that that VIP room is not even marked. Like many of the students, she had never been in that room and was not aware of its existence.

While we were waiting Ilwin and Merry wandered off and got some snacks. During this time we worked on some of our other plans for the vacation. After Debra and I return to Xinyang, it is likely that we will then head for Kaifeng. This is not far from Zhengzhou and is considered to be one of the more interesting historic cities. As it turns out, HZQ is familiar with this city and I made plans to contact her, at her home city of Xin Xiang, when we get to that stage of our trip.

About that time Merry and Ilwin returned and a short time later the train arrived. It was a short run to the correct car, one must remember that the trains only stop for a few minutes at the smaller station and there is boarding in cars all along it's length. As I was stowing my baggage, HZQ was writing something, in Chinese, on a note, with my passport number, for the conductor. At that point she left, Merry and Ilwin had already gotten off the train.

Once the train was moving the conductor came and wanted more information. This was a problem due to language issues; however, I gathered that, in addition to my passport number, and whatever HZQ had written, he needed my county of origin and full name written down. I made it that far when he through the hard one at me; it needed to be written in Chinese.

When it was clear that I was not able to do this the conductor went and got someone else to assist. He brought a Chinese Air Force officer. This resulted in the person who had been in the bunk next to mine being moved so that the officer would be able to stay nearby (and, presumably, keep me out of trouble). He was helpful and stated, the next morning, that he enjoyed a chance to practice his English. There is no doubt that he was very helpful in giving the conductor the information that he needed.

It was well after dark when I boarded and by the time that the paperwork was completed, it was well after 10pm; so, I was pretty quick to go to sleep and stayed that way well into dawn. I then got up and made myself a simple breakfast. About this time, the officer woke up and we chatted for a while. The conductor then came and switched my bunk card back for my ticket and I made my way to the doors.

Debra had described the Xian as having a huge train station; compared to Zhengzhou and Hankou it did not seem to be much at all. As soon as I exited the station I saw Debra. I was surprised by how close to the city walls the station was. We then went to the bus stops and rode back to the Hostel that Debra stays at.

From there we walked around town for quite a while and finally went through the Moslem quarter and visited the Grand Mosque, one of the oldest Mosques in China. From there we returned to the hostel and rested. Then we went on a long bus ride and walked back (never finding the shower slippers and pajamas, for me, that we were looking for). On the ride we saw a foreign language bookstore and, after again resting at the Hostel, walked back to it. I have to say that in this area, around the Hostel, the number of westerners that I saw amazed me. I saw more westerners here than I saw in any other place in China.

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At the bookstore we both purchased a set of textbooks to help us with our Chinese. Later that evening we walked through some of the alleys and went to a small restaurant for dinner. I noticed that in the city center there are not the number of small shops and vibrant alleys that are seen in other places in China. It is almost as if there is an effort to make Xian look like a western city. The only places that approached looking like the China that I am used to seeing were the streets outside of the tourist portion of the Muslim quarter.

At some point during the day Debra purchased a new battery for her film camera. It came as no real surprise that the battery that was sold to her was dead. This is a common problem in China. The batteries are sold so seldom that they die before they are sold. If a person were coming with something that uses an odd size battery I would recommend bringing the spares that you will need. Other than that, for frequently used batteries, plan on using rechargeable batteries. The NiMh batteries are widely available, as are the chargers.

The next day involved walking to several outdoor shops in Xian. Debra was looking for some camping gear. A large portion of that camping gear that is available is imported; thus, it, by Chinese standards, is very expensive. We still looked at several places and walked along the moat, that runs outside of the city wall, for a ways. We were also getting some food to eat while on the train.

About this time it was necessary that we begin preparing to head for the train station. So, we returned to the Hostel and picked up our bags, that were being stored there, and started hopping on buses in order to head for the train station.

We had soft seat, or first class, tickets so we waited in the lounge, which was somewhat filled. This is the time of year that many students are returning home and families are traveling for the holiday so even these waiting rooms are nearly full.

The train ride from Xian to Ankang was uneventful. I did notice that there were some rather long tunnels on the route. The entire ride was about four hours.

Upon our arrival in Ankang we took a cab back to Debras Apartment. At that point we had dinner, which was, largely, the food that we had not eaten on the train, and pretty much called it a day.

The next couple of days were generally just me puttering around the flat while Debra was in class. We went for dinner together on Monday evening and walked to a market.

Tuesday I went for a bike ride by myself and found a small, nearby, shop for dinner. So, other than doing laundry, sitting around and some bike rides, I am doing very little in Ankang.

Exams are over

Friday, 19 Jan 07

Well, my exams are over. In general they were pretty easy for my students. As I told them, the only way to fail is to decide to not show up for the exam. It was an easy class and I saw no reason that the exam should be hard.

Most of my students finished it in class on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. There were a few that I had to go back for on Friday, which was my last day of classes. For lunch Ken, Michelle, and I went out to kens preferred restaurant. However, I had to hurry back as I still had two classes with people that did not finish their exams.

When I got back I arranged to meet with HZQ for dinner and then went in to the class, where several students who were not taking exams were still present and I helped them prepare for some of their other exams along with grading the papers that I had assigned.

At dinner none of us, HZQ, her roommate, and me, were able to decide where to go for dinner. So, instead, we came back and they prepared dinner for the three of us, at my flat. Michelle stopped by and we, further, discussed our vacation plans. Michelle offered to type them up so we would have a clear plan and cost estimate. We will see how close we get, for about two weeks of travel we are estimating between three and four thousand RMB. Over a thousand of that will be train tickets. Most of the features that we have planned to visit are reasonably low cost things; however, we are unsure as to what rooms will really cost us.

We also discussed the possibility of Debra visiting her, and her family, during the vacation. That may work well as she lives in Xin Xinag, which is about an hour, by rail, from Zheng Zhou. This may give Debra and I am opportunity to visit the Museum, and city wall, there and to also visit the nearby, historic, city of Kaifeng.