Tibet - part II

The air is thin, crisp and cool. The thick clouds around me will mean that no photos will show the beauty of my rock's viewpoint, as most of the mountain tops are covered by these monsterous clouds of hundreds of shades of white and gray that I fear will never show in the photos below, while the thin, whispy fog moves quickly over the mountain's surface, visibly passing beside me.



The sun is out at last, warming the back of my neck, while the hard, white rock I'm sitting has been strangly comfortable for the past hour or so. I can hear birds all around me, their singing carrying across these deep valleys.


The valley in front of me contains three farming villages, with a multitude of green shaded crops that light up the ground in front of me against the barron, brown mountain slopes (see below).



The long, sweeping valley to my right is the lowest of them all, with thousands of little streams and waterways joining and dispanding as they quietly flow through this mountain path.

Behind me is a small Buddhist village situated on the top of a small hill, which is being engulfed by thick fog as I'm writing in my diary. Between the village and my rock, yaks pass time by, grazing amongst the steep, grassy incline.

On my left are a number of mountain peaks that we've just climbed along with two buddhist pilgrims. At 4,500m above sea level (thats a lot!), each mountain peak strangely contains blue, yellow, green, red and white flags used by Tibetan pilgrims to send their prayers to the gods. Also at each peak, the two pilgrims would re-stock a basic fire with dry branches and leaves, setting it alightto create a wonderful smelling smoke that rises from the top of each peak. The two pilgrims pass me having finished their task. We exchange a little conversation in Tibetan and say goodbye as they walk back to the Buddhist village behind me.

I feel really special to be sitting this high up, to be surrounded by such beauty, in a place that so many dream about, but never find the opportunity to visit.

I feel peaceful, calm and relieved that I'm writing this all down. I'd like to sit here for longer, waiting for some of the thick clouds to pass by, allowing me a glipse of the mountain tops they hide.

Now it's time to move from my rock on a Himalayan mountain peak, to explore the Buddhist Village behind me.

In the middle of this Buddhist village are a magnificant red temple and a white debating courthouse. This Buddhist village belongs to the same group as the debating monks in the previous post, so there was another opportunity to see a much bigger debate within the monks present.

I slipped out half way through, to see a few monks and a chef cooking the monk's lunch, dumplings cooked over a fierce, flaming fire with potatoes, onions and rice. A simple meal.

After the debate, the monks wandered off to do their own thing, they really do seem to be incredibly relaxed, thoughtful and also delighted when a foreigner speaks basic Tibetan to them. One of the monks in the red temple even took time with me to teach me some extra words!

It was worth getting up at 6am, it was worth pushing and fighting with a mob of Tibetans to get onto the bus, it was worth not getting a real seat on the 90min bus and it was worth the direct, hard trek up the steep incline, because this really was an incredible experience with Tibetan monks and incredible views, high up in the Himalayan mountains.

Tibet - part I

I've arrived in Tibet.

A holy site that many Buddhists dream about visiting, a city that for centuries was closed to outsiders, and a location so high up into the Himalayan mountains that it's referred to as the roof of the world.

In Tibet, I'm standing in Lhasa, the capital city. My housemate Natalie booked this trip for herself months ago, and at the last minute I decided to take some holiday and join her. It was tough to get everything sorted in time, but we're finally here, in Tibet!

Monks

A Tibetan Monk.

This one is from the Sera Monastery, part of the Dalai Lama's school of Buddhism

With deep red flowing robes, short or shaven hair, with prayer beads in their hands, they look like you'd expect Monks to look.

25 monks, sitting on white stones, surrounded by many large green trees that provide shade to the monks and tourists alike, we are all sitting in this small courtyard within the Sera monastery, waiting for the debating to begin.

There's a lot that Western education could learn from these Tibetan monks. Many of these monks spend their lifetime to achieve enlightenment and debating is one of the methods of learning to help them fully understand the reasoning behind the text that they're studying. It's a much deeper and interactive level of learning. The process is designed to ensure their study isn't just theoretical and memorise/regurgitate, but is really understood and encourages retentive learning. One book I read says that there is a saying "Are you learning in your books or in your head?"

However there were a few suprises. The monks push each other a little, sometimes knocking the other onto the ground, while they emphasis their points by clapping loudly. I imagined Buddhist monks to be peaceful, not playfighting, detaing, smiling and laughing. It made them seem strangely normal, and I respect them even more for this. However if you contrast this to their leader the Dalai Lama (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalai_Lama), I wonder what would happen if he behaved like this in front of the world's leaders and the UN?! Would anything change? Probably not.

It was also suprising to see monks with Nike sandals, silver watches and mobile phones.

However these monks really do seem to lve simple lives. Whle wandering through a sunny inner courtyard surrounded by the monk's living quarters, we found that their bedrooms are no more than 6 foot by 8 foot. Half of the room is taken up by a roll mat/mattress, with the other half containing a chair and desk, full of books and papers for theri Buddhist studies. Also we saw 3 monks hand washing their feet and clothes in buckets with cold water from an outside tap. So if anyone ever tells you Tibetan monks are spoilt and rich, then while it's possible that some are, the majority liver very simple, but meaningful lives.

Altitude

At over 3,500m above sea level, Lhasa (the capital) is high up. With less air and a lower oxygen level if makes breathing difficult and thins the blood. You end up breathing more often and much deeper to compensate for this, and we're both a little tired from the lower oxygen getting to our system.

Additionally, you end up drinking much more water (4-6 litres per day) and pee even more often than usual, and you have to be careful about the sun, because although it isn't that hot (low 20s celcius), we're closer to the sun with less atmosphere to protect us so it's much easier to burn.

With 36 hours gone in the capital of Tibet so far, it is an amazingly beautiful and peaceful city. If you learn a little of the language :) then the locals are really kind and friendlty. I have another 7 days left to travel in Lhasa and around Tibet, and I already love it here.

From Tibet with Love...

Outside Shanghai - Travelling

This is me. I'm still very skinny, I still need a haircut and I'm still loving China, so I guess not much has changed since you all last saw me, except I'm staying in China for another year.

This picture was taken last weekend, when I was invited to join one of my friends Kitty for a weekend away in a small town about 2 hours west of Shanghai (it's called ZhouZhaung). Not only was this extremely relaxing, but also a reminder that for many Chinese, life is very different to those near the centre of Beijing and Shanghai.

While this town is turning more touristy, we went to another smaller village that had almost no foreigners, meaning the experience was far more Chinese and far more authentic. The town and the smaller village have a lot of old buildings, lots of bridges and is nicknames 'the Venice of China' as it has numerous canals and waterways, which makes the whole location really beautiful and very peaceful.

For George and Eddie, I have a nice little story from that should remind them of when we were growing up... While walking through this small village in China, Kitty noticed a stall of Ocarinas! An ocarina is a small, egg-shaped, musical instrument that you blow into, kind of similiar to a flute, see the photo below.

George and Eddie should remember an old story called 'the Legend of Zelda' that we were all addicted to. There was one specific game which had the subtitle "the Ocarina of Time", where the hero found a magical ocarina, where a certain song would send the hero back in time, play a magical spell, or call his faithful horse to him. Well many years later I have now learnt that an ocarina is originally from China, and courtesy of a birthday present, I now am the proud owner of my own ocarina!

Another small story is my small friendship with this Chinese 6 year old from this village (see photo below). I was taking a photo of one of the shops, and this little girl looked up from behind the shop counter, smiled at me and asked me a question (in Chinese)...

In the next minute or two, we managed to have a basic conversation in Chinese, where we discussed whether we had eaten lunch yet, whether she was busy that day, and I found out her name was something like ZhiYueYue. After saying goodbye, this one minute conversation gave me a big smile for the rest of the afternoon, after one year in China I can finally have a one minute basic conversation with a 6 year old! Hmmm... after writing that, it doesn't seem so impressive does it?!

Outside Shanghai - Village Life

Life in this small village and the small town is very different to life in the centre of Beijing or Shanghai. It's much more relaxing, more simple and it feels more like 'real life'......

There's a lot of street food in China, and this old lady and her granddaughter are a typical example, selling a type of pancake and boiled eggs to any interested passer-by.

Talking of street food, the Shanghai region has a greater quantity and variety of fresh fruit than Beijing. This girl is pealing a pineapple for us - one of my favourite fruits of the moment, however it's going off season now in China so it's harder to get :-(

This smaller village seemed much more real and relaxed than the centre of Shanghai, as shown by this local happily spending his afternoon fishing in the local lake.

Life here is more basic, with locals using a simple outdoor hairdressers instead of a fancy Korean one that washes your hair, massages you and then cuts your hair. We saw numerous locals washing their clothes in the local lake, meaning the water is much cleaner than most of the rest of China.

We also saw lots of cute and nice things that just made us smile, including the small dog that happily slept on the street the whole afternoon, and this old lady just wandering slowly down the alleys and local shops.

A very relaxing, interesting and fun way to spend a weekend with one of my best friends in China.

Dan will spend a 2nd year in China

"Everyone stays longer in China than they expected."

I will spend a second year in China, moving down to Shanghai from the summer 2007 to summer 2008, continuing to work for AIESEC!

Right now I'd really like to be in the pub having a beer with Matt, Eddy and Lakins... but as that's not quite possible I think next Christmas will probably be the next time I visit my friends and family in the UK. Therefore I'll update my blog a little more often!

Chinese New Year: other's experiences

China's a big place, with many different cultures, customs and behaviours.

My previous post about Spring Festival and Chinese New Year was based on my experience, which I felt wasn't that Chinese and was only based in Beijing (Beijing is the red dot)

Therefore here are few other people's experiences, they're mainly from the south of China but it should give a different perspective on what life in China is like during this time.

Kitty's experience

“I spent about 3 weeks back home to Guangdong province, in the very south of China (near Hong Kong) which is a full 24 hour train trip each way.”

“Haha - before spring festival you must clean your house similar to spring cleaning in the west, you can't have any dirty clothes, every thing in the house must be clean and also you must pay all of your debts as you can't lead your debt into the new year (Dan - can you imagine the UK trying to do that with our credit card debts every New Year?).”

“In Guangdong many people I know would also go to the flower markets to show for decorations, for small presents, and for many people to buy an orange tree! In our house we had this orange tree (slightly similar to a Western Christmas tree) which sits in our house, and we hang decorations on it and the red envelopes in the picture are for holding 'lucky money'. ” (Dan - which is usually given to anyone below around 25 by their family and family friends)

Susan's experience

“For Spring Festival, I went back down to my hometown in south-east China, in Fujian province. Spring Festival is about eating, new clothes, playing mahjong, going to KTV (karaoke) - although it's hard to book a room for KTV because everybody is going at this time!”

“Over Spring festival there was a lot of weddings, because there were lots of 'good days' during this time in the (Chinese) lunar calender this year. Many people will want babies in the next two years, because this is now the year of the Pig which represents fertility, and next year is the year of the Rat, which is the first of the 12 animals (so some believe it's a good animal) and the rat represents intelligence so they want their baby to be smart. Therefore many people around my age (22) would prefer to get married and have babies in the next two years, just because of the good luck that these years represent.”

“Spring Festival for me was about eating lots of food and putting on lots of weight (Dan - all Chinese girls think they're fat, even though they're the skinnest people I've ever seen). I found it really difficult to not eat as your forced by many people including your parents, friends and friends of the family! The older generation believe that if you eat a lot then you're healthy and in a good situation and if you don't eat much when your with friends of the family then it's really not polite (especially if they're paying) as it may mean you either don't like the food or you don't like them!”

Adam's experience

Like many forigners in China, Adam spent the holiday travelling, including visiting Fujian province (where Susan lives). I was meant to join him, but due to a few reasons I couldn't.

“After Quanzhou I headed into the mountains to an area now inhabited by the Hakka People, who lost many battles against the Han Chinese a thousand or so years ago and were forced into the mountains. Their language is (as is typical of China) as different to Mandarin Chinese as Italian is to English though their writing is mostly the same. ”

“What makes the area attractive to tourists is that the Hakka people built their homes out of mud, straw and so on and in square and circular shapes for protection. Typically the 'Tu Lou" (Earth Buildings) are 3-4 stories with the ground level being for cooking, the next level for storage and the next couple for accommodation. The bottom 2 levels had no windows whatsoever, and there was only 1 entrance into these massive structures (with walls around 2m thick).”

“Of course many of them are still standing (I saw one almost 900 years old), and what makes the area so interesting is that they are all still inhabited and new buildings are still created in the same style (though with some mod-cons, like taps a long with the well). Visiting the Tu lou (and there are thosuands in the area; most villages are full of them) is a glimpse into a way of life little changed for a thousand years - and still ongoing.”

“The only real changes are that many of the young people migrate to the cities to work, so most of the tu lou are half-empty and motorbikes are the method of transportation of choice.”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakka

www.flickr.com/photos/66972807@N00/sets/72057594059830826

China Blogs and Stories

Some interesting blogs and stories about China.

Introduction to China
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China

Photos from travelling around China
http://www.blogstoday.co.uk/bloghome.aspx?username=James

"One of the things that frustrates me most is not that most foreigners know so little about China ... People need to understand that until 25 years ago, there was 0 freedom of speech, almost 0 legal system, almost 0 trade, very high malnutrition, poverty, illiteracy etc. It has come a long way in 25 years - although obviously not far enough (yet) for most people (me included)."
http://adam.nomadlife.org/

"Another report came and went this week about the Chinese government's practice of harvesting organs from executed prisoners for transplant with hardly a speck of take-up in the international press."
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/foreign/richardspencer/

While in Inner Mongolia, we decided to swing by the Gobi Desert..."
http://devrim.nomadlife.org/

"Being a Chinese, I am very critical about commercializing things - NOT because I am a big fan of communism. Because in a market size of 1.3 billion, market economy is too theoretical to work. I dare to say that with a good justification, selling shit can make one rich in China. Our consumers are very unsophisticated and a tiny percentage ends up with a huge number."
http://jingwei.nomadlife.org/

"Villagers in southwestern China are puzzled by a county government's decision to paint the entire barren Laoshou mountain green. Workers who began spraying in August told villagers that they were doing so on orders of the county government but were not told why."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/14/news/green.php

Why China needs Sesame Street and why the Chinese don't eat Cheese
http://www.lostlaowai.com/commentary/blog/

Spring Festival Stats from 2006.
- 2 billion+ is the total number of passengers in China in this period
- 10 million of these are expected to arrive in Shanghai
- 170.000 is the peak daily flow of passengers through Shanghai Railway Station
- 25 million is spend on fireworks in Shanghai
- 8 million of these fireworks is bought from a legal source"
http://www.chinasnippets.com/2006/01/28/spring-festival-chinese-new-year-statistics/

A Third of Fish Species in Yellow River Extinct
"There used to be more than 150 species of fish living in the Yellow River, but one-third have disappeared for good"
http://beijing.nomadlife.org/

Chinese New Year: my experience

Spring Festival

The oldest and most important festival in China, more commonly known in the West as Chinese New Year. In someways it's very similar to our Christmas, but different in so many ways.

I spent the majority of the New Year's Eve day with Roxie (one of my best friends in China) and Asia (a new cool Polish trainee) wandering around Beijing. Firstly we went to Lama Temple, where there was a fair around the Temple's grounds.

With red lanterns were hanging off many of the trees...

... traditional dancing on a stage ...

... they tried to show off Chinese culture.

After spending a few hours wandering around, we decided to walk towards the Hutongs in central Beijing, which are the small houses in old lanes and alleyways, many of which are being knocked down every day (www.hutongphotography.com). On first sight these houses look run-down, poor and on the verge of collapsing. However, like most things in China, the reality is different to how it first seems.

Roxie showed us her grandparent's house in the Hutong area, which from the outside it looks like one of the nicer hutongs. While we couldn't go inside, we could look through the windows, where to my suprise the inside looked really similar to my Serbian grandad's house, and similar to my late grans house, with old black and white framed photos, flowers, stylish wooden chairs and a twenty year old TV. For 8 months I believed that this area of town was really poor and therefore a special part of Beijing, but now I realise that my perceptions weren't accurate, and that it's special for different reasons.

After lunch, we moved onto Beihai park, a well preserved imperial garden just north of the centre of Beijing - which was incredibly relaxing. In spring I think I'll spend a lot of time there, as it's a really nice place where I can enjoy it's peace and quiet.

After this, we went back to the apartment for a nap, before going down to Beijing's bar district (Sanliton) to meet up with the other international AIESECers around the world. England, Northern Ireland, Japan, Poland, US, South Africa, Italy, Romania and Germany were all represented around the table of this Thai restaurant, which although expensive was really good fun.



We then moved to a bar, where we had a few drinks European style, chatting away.

When it hit midnight, we moved outside with our beers, where the whole of Beijing seemed to be on fire! Fireworks were banned from central Beijing for 5 years, but this year they were allowed again, so fireworks were exploding everywhere, with two big firework displays nearby, with people shooting fireworks from the streets and even from their house windows! It is incredibly dangerous to do all of this, but it did make an amazing sight, and these fireworks have continued throughout the whole of New Years Day also, which I guess must be very difficult for anyone with a hangover.

All in all, it wasn't a 100% authentic Chinese experience, but it was quite Chinese and it was really enjoyable.

Chinese New Year - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

Year of the Pig - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_(zodiac)

Time to start normal life again...

7.34am, Monday morning.

I'm getting up early to start work in a few minutes, simply because I woke up and didn't want to sleep anymore. I'm listening to Jack Johnson, wearing a pair of shorts (although outside it's minus 5), looking forward to eating the potato salad thats in the fridge, sitting in our 5 bedroom apartment that is currently holding between 10 and 12 people on a regular basis at the moment.

The conference was pretty good, we elected and selected our successors! However my best day was the day after the conference (pictures to come later). We woke up at about midday, so Kitty (a Chinese AIESECer), Fish (also a Chinese AIESECer) and I cooked lunch for everyone. I love cooking, but since I've been in China I haven't cooked often, so this was something I really enjoyed.

After eating a really big and good lunch (thanks girls!), Ciao (the Brazilian guy) joined Kitty, Fish and I in going down to one of the universities to play badminton for a bit. I was literally rolling on the floor with laughter as we continously changed the rules: having mild punishments for the losers, adding volleyball rules to the game so that our team could hit it multiple times and having a small water fight to finish off. Quite odd but extremely funny.

Then a few others joined us and we had dinner in a good dumpling restaurant, then returned back to the apartment where I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. 14 hours later, I woke up again. Perfect.

7.49am, Monday morning. Time to start normal life again.

Out of Office

I'll be out of contact with the rest of the world for the next week.

From the 27th January to the 3rd Feb, I will be outside Beijing, at one of AIESEC's national conferences. I love conferences so this is something I'm really looking forward to, plus this time my workload isn't too high so I get some more free time to enjoy it, rather than working 24/7.

A longer update to come soon, with more pictures :)