Visuals

Left to right: Sarah (my Chinese-Canadian flatmate, she teaches at the same company), ME, and Liz (my Vietnamese flatmate, she teaches me Chinese and cooks for me)




Maybe this picture is a tad cliche but hey, I'm in China. It's to please the folks back home :) This is yours truly in Tiananmen Square with the Forbidden City in the background. I've visited this place a few too many times so it's sadly lost its oooh ahhhh appeal.


At a lantern shop during Spring Festival (February). Families decorate their homes with red lanterns and images of the character 福 which means happiness. At midnight on China's New Year's Eve eveyone and their mother comes out into the street and sets of a dazzling displace of fireworks. The kind of fireworks you see at a professional show in the use for July 4th can be bought by a child on the street corner. .. I'm just guessing but I bet the hospitals get a lot of business at that time of the year!

FINALLY made it Shanghai

Once upon a time (in November 2003 to be exact), while my dear parents were visiting me in Tianjin we bought train tickets for a short trip to the grand city of Shanghai. After buying our tickets I quickly glanced at them to see what time our train would leave. 10:18. We left for the station in plenty of time but upon arriving at the station we were told our train had already left. 2 hours ago! Looking at the tickets a second time I realized the time read 20:18 not 10:18. Lyndsey you stupid girl. Although the story of "the time we almost went to Shanghai" is a good memory, I've learned to tell time now and still wanted to go back. So, almost 4 years later I thought I'd try again. Bought my ticket, checked the time a few times, and set off for a 5 day trip to Shanghai.

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Well folks I just returned from my first visit to Shanghai. Its the largest city in China. It really feels like you're in New York City with all of the skyscrapers, traffic jams, and convenience stores on every corner, and an overwhelming feeling that China is becoming more and more westernized. I'm not used to seeing westerners here in Tianjin but in Shanghai they were everywhere... you know, I should stop criticizing the Chinese for staring at me because when I see other westerners I can't help but stare as well.

Here I am with a view of modern Shanghai in the background



These lions are a common sight outside old Chinese buildings, and a lot of big restaurants and stores place them in front these days too. After just confering with my Vietnamese flatmate, we agree their purpose is to protect the building.

This is Yuyuan garden and bazaar. The area is full of old-style Chinese buildings and tons of craft and Chinese souvenir shops. The crowds were a little overwhelming but the place is beautiful.



I had never seen such organized traffic in China as in Shanghai. Every street corner had a crossing guards who took their jobs very seriously. I say them giving out tickts left and right to bicyclists who didn't stop for the red light and for pedestrians who bolted across the road before the green walk sign came on...funny though, the tickets they were giving out were just 10rmb ($1.25). The lawbreakers just reached in their pockets, handed the policeman 10rmb, and continued on their way. ... I wonder if the money collected for those tickets is actually handed over to the authorities?



Nanjing Road
This is a famous pedestrian-only shopping street in Shanghai. Notice the lady with her umbrella. Also notice that it is not raining. In China, when the sun comes out, everyone pops open their umbrellas.



Nightime view of the Pearl Tower - sadly my camera is fickle with night shots



Last but not least, a night view of the Bund. This is the bank of the river where the British set up headquarters back in the days of their "settlement in Shanghai

Hangzhou: Paradise on Earth

So I am writing from the beautiful town of Hangzhou just 2 hours west of Shanghai. I took a few vacation days from work and took the overnight train to Shanghai on Wednesday night to meet a friend and explore Shanghai together. Today we took a day trip to Hangzhou. There is some old saying that goes something like this: "In heaven there's paradise, on earth there's Hangzhou".

It really is a beautiful city. The west lake and its surrounding area are where all the beauty lies. The lake is large with mountains surrounding it. Old chinese-style boats float around the lake and on the opposite shores there are a few pagodas and temples. Surrounding the lake are cobble-stone walkways and large willow trees. It is such a relaxing break from the fast pace and lack of nature found back in Tianjin.

But I'm sooo tired. Walking all day wears on me...and my shoes too. I think I need to buy a new pair. My right shoe has worn a big hole in bottom and when it rains my right foot gets soaked :p

Well its time to catch the bus back to bustling Shanghai. More stories and photos to come once I get back to Tianjin on Monday.

Unpredictable Weather

Call it the effects of global warming, or maybe its from being located so close to the ocean, but the weather in this city is just bizarre.

Autumn: Simlar temperaturewise to Autumn in Pennsylvania, warm at its start and chilly by its end, but there really isnt a period where the leaves change colors, and the dust storms and pollution seem to progressively get worse by the end of the season.

Winter: Dismal and gray. Gray, not because the sun isn't shinging, but gray because the pollution is so bad it blocks the sun's rays. Actually, it blocks the entire sun. Many days you can't even guess where the sun is in the sky. Every see images of Chinese cities on the news and everyone is shown wearing what you believe to be a "SARS" mask? Well it's not for SARS, its to keep from breathing in the dirty air and because the air is so cold, your face is warmer when wearing a mask. I can deal with cold temperature as long as I get to see some fluffy white snow in exchange. But not in Tianjin. The most snow you can expect is an inch or less and it instantly turns into brown slush.

Spring: Winter abruptly ends and BAM!, its warm. You go from wearing a heavy winter coat to short sleeves in a matter of a few days. ...one week later, spring is over.

Summer: Summer is hot, sticky, and I just can't handle it! It's only May and already temperatures are up in the 90's! I'm glad I'll be back in the US before the worst of it comes.

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Well it poured down rain today. This is a rare event here; it rains just a few days out of the year. OF COURSE this day would come on the day I don't take an umbrella to work! It started raining while I was teaching at a high school. Then, to go home, I had to wait 20 minutes for the bus to come! It's amazing how many Chinese people with umbrellas will stand there and watch the foreign girl get soaked. It wasn't until a minute before the bus arrived that someone offered to let me stand under their umbrella. By that point I was soaked through and through so it didn't make much of a difference but its good to know there's at least one kind person out there. Now I know I'm going to get sick and that's no good because I'm taking the train to Shanghai tomorrrow evening for vacation! errrrrrrgh

Oh baby!

My sister had a baby boy yesterday morning. Gaige McClain Wingert. Only one month to go before I can go home and start the spoiling!

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Only Children in China
You've probably heard about China's "One Child Policy". It's China's way of trying to control its huge and growing population. The policy is enforced fairly well except in more remote rural areas where the government is less present. I teach in one middle school and one high school and I don't even have to ask, I know every student is an only child.

Imagine a society of only-children. The social consequences must be horrible. Children don't learn how to interact with other children. No sharing, no playing with brothers and sisters, and so much pressure from parents to excel in school, plus sole responsibility to care for the parents as they age. That is a lot of pressure!

Tianjin: my home away from home

Tianjin has become my home away from home. It is a port city in northeast China (two hours south of the capitol Beijing). With a population of about 11 million people it is China's 3rd largest city. And a lot of people equals a lot of cars, a lot of crowds, and a sea of bicycles. Although more and more people are buying cars these days, there are still bike lanes running alongside every street and bicycle parking lots outside of every store and apartment building.

I wouldn't call Tianjin a tourist city. There is an amusement park with a rollercoaster that looks like it would give you whiplash and a water park which I think has some rides and a presumably delapidated zoo but I wouldn't know because I'm too cheap to pay the 30 yuan ( $4.50) to enter. This city's claim to fame is its TV tower. It looks like the Seattle Space Needle and can be seen from all over the city.

Speaking of being cheap, I have become a very "thrifty" person. I found myself trying to bargain with a man for 15 minutes because his price was 5 yuan more than what I wanted to pay. That's about 60 cents. What am I going to do when I return to the US?? Thank God I'll have my parents to feed me, otherwise I might be too cheap to buy myself food.

So in a nutshell: Tianjin is dirty. The air is heavily polluted, people shamelessly throw trash onto the sidewalk right and left, men spit all over the place (I even saw one guy do it in the supermarket!) and even my apartment gathers an inch of dust every day. But I love living here. The people here are welcoming and very friendly, more so than in other Chinese cities. I enjoy my teaching job, I have good Chinese and foreign friends, and because it's a big city the transportation is great and its so close to Beijing. The city has anything I could want, it's got character, and I'm comfortable here. It really has become my home away from home.

The start of something?

Let's hope so. I don't know why I didn't start a blog of my adventures sooner. I had heard of others doing it and thought it would be a good way to keep in touch with friends and family back home but for some reason it took me till now to start.

I wish I had started to keep track of my time in China when I first came but now I've about a month and a half left here. Well, it's better late than never, right? I hope with this blog to let all of you back home and far far away where I am, what I'm experiencing, and hopefully I can share some interesting stories.

My tentative plan for...dun dun duuun the future:
August 2006 - the end of June 2007 I've been teaching English in Tianjin, China (I'll try to keep you updated until the end of my time in China.

June 2007 - September 2007 home sweet home

September 2007-November 2007 I'll be exploring the middle east, staying with friends who live there, and learning some arabic! (I'll start keeping this journal again at this time)

Ok, if you have any questions about life in China, Chinese culture, language, anything.. ask and I will respond!