Lanzhou - Ningbo - Beijing

Me, Tall Guy, Chris, SamSimon, Cheryl, various other new friends

Well, our last night in Lanzhou, we met up with SamSimon and another
teacher from Dahongying (whom we affectionately refer to as "Tall
Guy") for snacks, dinner, fruit, nuts, white wine (northern Chinese
hospitality!), post-dinner refreshments, and a late night culinary
feast. oh boy. Through Chris's ability to drink White Wine, and mine
and Cheryl's giggling Chinese, we made friends with Tall Guy's family,
Tall Guy's Dad's boss, and Tall Guy's Dad's boss's husband, kid, and
nephew. awesome! After a late night, we caught the train to
Shanghai, and believe it or not, between Lanzhou and Shanghai there is
green! And mountains! and trees! And of course, rows and rows of
green-housed fields and mud houses, and cities of sky-scraping
apartment buildings and smog.

In Shanghai, after enjoying the fresh fresh seafood, and making
several frantic calls to a friend in Ningbo, we caught buses to Ningbo
for Spring Festival! Spring Festival, as far as I can tell, consists
of family and fireworks. Tons of fireworks. And there ain't no
not-within-city-limits kinds of rules. 4th of July style explosions
(not just sparklers, but city-sponsored firework display quality)
between apartment complexes and in the street and over power-lines, to
ring in the year of the dog with what must be the most polluted day of
the year in China. We spent it at a friend's house in Ningbo,
Shirley, (and her sister and husband and their son and her parents),
eating vegetables and dumplings and running around Ningbo's rivers to
watch the fireworks. Coming back to Ningbo makes me realize how clean
of a city it is... and there are trees and lots of rivers, and fields
outside my window at DHY... not bad not bad.

The day after Spring Festival, Chris and I trained it to Hangzhou
(home of the touristly-renowned West Lake) to add one to our wandering
party - Chris Loken. Woo! We spent a few days in Ningbo playing
badminton in the park, emptying back-packs at my apartment, baking
zucchini bread, and hanging at Shirley's house to play with her nephew
and witness magical-Chinese-potty-training. See, little kids here

wear split-pants (split in the crotch area, so the kid squats and it's
all out there), and throughout our journey we've been learning more
about the reason behind this... evidently kids are pavlov-type
trained to go to the bathroom when the Mom makes a specific whistling
noise... and that's why they can wander with split pants and sit on
Grandpa's lap without accidents at 7 months old. So, Shirley's
nephew, 2-month-old that he is, goes to the bathroom at the sound of
his Grandma whistling a shhhh sound (his Mom's not so good at it yet,
but I guess Grandma's got the kid-whistling experience already). 2
months and already almost potty-trained. wow. something the diaper
industry doesn't want you to know about.

In Ningbo, me and the two Chris's tried to get train tickets to get to
Hong Kong, but finding no availability, we've high-tailed it to
Beijing! Where it's cold. And on checking into a youth hostel we
discovered that (brother) Chris' visa was exactly 3 days overdue.
oops. Since then we've spent some quality time at the US Embassy, the
"local police station" (much easier said than done), the big police
station where they actually do visa extension things, and the back of
a police car (they were friendly and trying to help us, no harm done,
but still a little scary...). Tomorrow we've been informed that
Chris' visa will be right as rain, until Feb. 10th, when we'd better
be out of the country... woo, Hong Kong!

After Many Stairs

BLUE SKY over Beijing Smog!

In other than visa news; we went hiking in some hills outside
Beijing... there are hills here! And the wind has blown away most of
the smog and the sky is blue! That's awesome! I wanted to take lots
and lots of pictures, but I realized that might only be because there
weren't buildings and the sky was blue... and so I refrained and
enjoyed my walking-up-stairs (that's what climbing Chinese mountains
seems to be about) time.... oh, and the friends that are here! One of
the guys I lived with at Stanford, Donald DeBona, has been living in
Beijing for the last 2 years, so him, his roommates (Beijing Ultimate
players), and their extended friends (also Bejing Ultimate players)
have been quality company these last few days! We've played lots of
Boggle, eaten interesting food, gone hiking (so unbelievably good in
this city-laden trip), and have plans to see the Great Wall tomorrow!

Cold in Tianamen Square

Tianamen - note large picture of Mao

Sans new Beijing friends, the Chris's and I took a gander around the
Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Tiananmen (it's actually a gate...
it's got a big picture of Mao over it... all hail) and of course,
snack street. Forbidden City is HUGE! There are houses for a
gazillion concubines in there! The poor invading armies probably got
really lost trying to find which room the Emperor would be in... maybe
that was the defense tactic... hmmmm... if I become Emperor maybe I
should get lots of concubines too... hmmmm....
Unfortunately it's really really cold around here. Unless you're
climbing up mountain-y things... that's warmer. Chris Loken reached
his cold-breaking-point after the Forbidden City (it took us a while
to find our way out) and retreated into the bottom of the Grand Hyatt
(only $350 US, and up, a night) for warmth ("I'll buy a cup of $4
coffee... I'll buy you all $4 cups of coffee!"), where we inexplicably
found, in "The Patisserie," the 5 kuai (about 60 cents) chocolate
croissant. score!

Shanghai Aerials Workshop!

Also in awesomeness, through a friend of mine from decadance (thanks
Merry!), Chris and I will be teaching an aerials workshop in Shanghai
on the 18th.