Beaches!!

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We decided to stick around town for the holidays, partly because I was getting over a cold and partly because traveling during the holidays can really suck in China, since you are sharing the rails, hotels and buses with about a billion other people. I decided that it was time to explore some of the local beaches.

Unlike Americans and Europeans, the Chinese have not taken to the notion of beaches as a great place to hang out. For one thing, they don't want to get tan. That's for peasants and fisherfolk. Yali prides herself in her fair complexion, and always wears long sleeves, a hat, and big shades when she goes in the sun. An umbrella completes the ensemble. You see lots of women and men using umbrellas when the sun is out. I also enjoy the shade provided by the bumbershoot and use mine whenever I'm walking in the baking heat.

Anyway, beach resorts do exist here, but not like you would think. We live in a place that has some nice beaches, and we have great winter weather, but this is no Miami. People from the North do not flock here in the winter.

We did go to two different places this week. The first is a spiffy little island a mere ten minute boat ride in the bay. President Hu Jintao paid a visit here in 2005 and viola!--Instant Resort.

There are some nice little beaches, good lodging, and restaurants, but your view from the beach is of the shipyards just across the narrow strait, so even though we had a great time with a bunch of our friends, I yearned for something a little more natural.

There is another bigger island that is a barrier island facing the South China Sea. It's a longer boat ride to a village, then you have to take a sanmo (three wheeled motorcycle cab) for 35 minutes across the island. It's a bone shaking ride through farms and fish farms--very third world. We were dropped off with the driver's phone number at a deserted resort. It was one of those if you build it they won't come kind of affairs. It was lunch time and we went over to the bamboo and sheet metal restaurant and had an awesome crab and squid lunch. They let us come into the kitchen and pick our crabs which were skittering around in a bucket. We then strolled over to a huge deserted beach with surf and some fishing boats. Yali bought a bunch of fresh fish from a fisher lady, and we boys romped in the surf. It was perfect water, and only a handful of people.

We walked over to the deserted hotel, and found someone who quoted us a price for a room, which wasn't too outrageous, so maybe we'll come over for a night sometime. We went back to the crab shack for a couple of cold ones and waited for the sanmo to return.

It was a wonderfully relaxing day completely removed from the city and we will be making this a favorite place to go on Saturdays for a long time.

Happy National Day

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Today is National Day. We are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China by watching the morning extravaganza in Beijing. It's an impressive extravaganza of military disciplined marching and standing at attention without blinking. They have been preparing for months, this thing is BIG. The weather is a perfect fall day in Beijing, what Keith Jackson might call a perfect day for college football.

The grounds of Tianemen Square are covered with a rectangular mass of people with yellow and red cards that change messages on command. There are groups in colorful costumes representing all the ethnic groups of China (except expat English teachers). The top ministers are all lined up with president Hu Jintao looking nattily retro in his Mao Jacket. Different branches of the military are lined down the boulevard for several kilometers with tanks, guns, missile launchers, and various fighting vehicles with 50's white sidewalls to go with president Wu's jacket. The soldiers, sailors and air folk are standing at attention.

The music starts from the world's biggest brass band. I can't help but notice there is not a sheet of music to be seen. An honor guard goose steps with the national flag. It is raised with great flair. The president's limo emerges from the arched doorway beneath Mao's portrait looking uncannily as though the late chairman is giving birth to a motorcade. Hu stands in sunroof with a battery of microphones in front of him and the motorcade cruises steadily past the waiting forces. He stands at attention going past and shouts the same encouragement to each group, and each groups shouts its mighty response. They turn around at the end and he returns to Mao's portal. He then appears for a blessedly short speech, then the music starts again and it parade time!

The marching is truly impressive with its precision. The participants are chosen partly based on size, so they match pretty well. The navy is spiffy in their whites, and the women soldiers have short skirts and mighty stylish boots. President Hu has a big smile for them, much bigger than when the missiles roll by later. My personal favorite are the women's militia in their red mini skirted uniforms with matching white berets, Sam Brown belts, holsters, boots, and gloves. Anyway they are a far cry from the olive drab mechanic overall suited students from the old Red Guard.

It ends with a big flyover of all kinds of fighters, helicopters, bombers and other aircraft.\

Of course, this is not all. The festivities go on into the night, with giant precision fireworks, dance performances, singing, bands, and other choreographed debauchery.

Cunjin Park

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Today Brian and I went to Cunjin Park. This is the park that I have the pleasure of walking through in my daily commute to school. It's a wonderful oasis in the middle of a busy Chinese city. One of the great things about living in the tropics is the lushness of the parks. A guy was doing some tumbling and martial arts moves, and gave us a little show. We walked up to the school so Brian could see where I work, and we ran into a few students who were impressed with the handsome, towering, manly young man.

The bus ride home was more fun than usual since we had a Chinese Ricky Bobby doing his NASCAR thing with our bus. Pedal to the metal, constant horn, and lots of vehicle passing. He occasionally stopped for for passengers, but with great reluctance. I swear he had a wife in labor he was trying to get home to.

We are pondering where we want to go for the upcoming National Day holiday. We get a week off to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Wahoo! Of course, Yali has to work this weekend, and lots of kids have school on Sunday, but it will still be a week off.

We are considering a return to Guangxi province and the Guilin area.

Outwitting the Dream Police

Yay! I found a great service that allows me total internet access. Back to blogging here. I like this site better, so I will be using it. There are a few entries here from livejournal, so read that stuff first.

The tropical storm/wannabe typhoon ended up hitting us squarely, but with virtually no wind. Just lots of rain. School ran as usual. Now we are back to sweat inducing steamy weather.

This week began the Great Leap Forward To Be Able to Pronounce "R". It doesn't exist in the Cantonese language, so the students have varying degrees of ablility with this tricky sound. After showing them with scientific cartoonish drawings of a tongue pointing up, I've gotten aboout a 90% success rate at the basic "aaarh" sound. Just in time for "Talk like a Pirate Day"! This week I got them eased into it with the "air" sound. As in Mary and Karen flew to Paris with their parents, where they met their Aunt Clair at the airport and stared at an Arab eating a pear.

They also showed great musical talent singing "Country Roads", or at least the chorus part. I also gave them a lesson in the nuances of the word "dude".

The school likes me and I like it. The only problem is that there just isn't enough of me to meet the demands of 2000 kids. They all want my phone number, but I would never have a moments rest if they got hold of that. My little apartment at the school is great for showers, air conditioning and napping. I have internet and a kitchen too. I stay there one night every two weeks when I have an early class the next day, since the buses don't start early enough for me to make on time.

Tonight is go out with the Brits and Chinese for BBQ night. It's a great way to spend a steamy Saturday night.

Proxy fun

Well now this is tedious. Posting on this site requires massive internet trickeries due to scaredy cat government blockage.

Early travelers to China endured months at sea in cramped, filthy wooden ships. They ate worm infested food, drank stale water, suffered scurvy, and often died painful, terrifying deaths.

Nothing like this happened to us. Our flight from Seattle to Beijing was on time, and our seats comfy. The first hardship we faced was the same selection of movies that we had on our trip to the States 6 weeks earlier. Not “Little Miss Sunshine” again! It was also time for the beverage cart, and being the seasoned Hainan Airline passenger, I opted for the red wine, since they don’t understand the concept of cold beer. Cocktails are not offered at any price, but the wine is free. Two glasses is all I have ever managed to get from the crew, although since it is a Chinese airline, I am sure something could be arranged with a surreptitious bribe.

We then were served airplane food. Their airplane food is a few steps better than the swill served on United, and it is weevil free, however, it is airplane food. It fills the stomach, and dealing with the different packaging gives you some diversion from the fact that nobody in their right mind would actually order this in a restaurant. We did get a little cheese and cracker packet with Tillamook cheddar, and I told Brian to enjoy it since we wouldn’t be seeing any of that again for a while.

Somewhere near Beijing the attendants went around with these little guns that took your temperature remotely. Just aim the red dot at your forehead and read. The purpose was to pre select people for H1N1 quarantine. Looks like everyone was OK.

Beijing airport sucks. Our plane to Guangzhou was almost 3 hours late and WAAAAAH!

We eventually got back with no scurvy, pirates, typhoons, or mutinies. I suffered a painful back which was fixed by a very traditional method which I will relate soon.

Engrish

Here was a deserted department store with some really great Chinglish signs. I have no idea why they went out of business.

6 American Weeks

AAAAAAAARGH!
The Chinese government got into some annoying internet meddling recently which included blocking most free blogging sites like blogspot. I managed to make a few entries with a lot of proxy noodling, but couldn't do photos or video. So I will do a bunch of makeup stuff now that I am back in the land of the free internet access.
We are just completing our first full day in Seattle. The day has been sunny and in the 80's. If you had never been here, you would want to move here. If you did this based on today's weather, you would be feeling grimly surprised by Christmas. This is so unlike most of the days here in that it isn't gray, damp and dreary.
Walking down the sidewalk in Jesse's neighbor hood gave me the strange feeling that the place was deserted. Where are the teeming masses? Nobody is staring at me! The cars aren't honking and stay in their lanes and off the sidewalks!
So far I have eaten two hamburgers, pizza and guacamole. I feel fat already.