An unscheduled departure...

Our little Nikon Coolpix has been such a great camera and it takes such clean, clear pics that we both got a bit dramatic (okay, we freaked out!) as we sat among our luggage in a KFC at 6am and realized it was gone!

Yesterday we decided not to pass up the opportunity to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, which meant packing up, checking out, then another long train ride. This trip from Beijing to Xi'an (which is in the middle of China!) is our farthest destination yet. The ride was pretty comfortable, we both had bottom bunks (they call them hard sleepers over here), snacks for the all-night ride, and ended up watching Slumdog Millionaire (loved it!) and getting a few fitful hours of sleep.

In our morning stupor we trekked over to a KFC to regroup. I went to grab a pick of a Chinese breakfast (noodles!) and came up empty handed. We assessed that we must have dropped the camera between our bunks and although Jenn is the Queen of last-minute-room-checks, we must have missed it. I headed quickly back to the station across the street and hit the exit instead of going through the through the masses, pleaded my way back to the loading platform, found our original train after only two wrong tries and a lot of begging; playing the desperate American seems to work miracles over here - especially if it is sincere! I found our original car but nobody was getting on or off so all the doors were locked. I looked around and got even bolder and asked a Red Army soldier to bang on a window for me and like magic the door opened and I hopped on and made my way swiftly to our bunks.

Two women had just finished cleaning our car and after I explained in sign language what I needed, they stopped what they were doing and helped me search top to bottom - but alas, no camera. Damn! They chatted in friendly Mandarin as we all searched and just as I stood up in resignation, they began yelling and pointing and waving their hands out the window - I didn't realize it but the train was leaving the station! Uh, oh!

They saw the look of panic in my face so one of the ladies grabbed me and we trotted towards the front, hopping through car after car, but I heard some screaming behind us and turned to see the other cleaning lady running towards us with my camera in her hands! I thanked her profusely, turned back and frantically continued heading to the front thinking to myself, "Could I possibly jump if someone opened a door for me?"

As we ran we picked up curious stragglers on the way too so by the time we stopped in the food car we had four other folks with us all wanting to help. A train official listened as she explained the situation and he smiled, shrugged his shoulders, and politely motioned for me to sit down. Everyone looked at me to see my reaction but knowing this is all part of the adventure, I just smiled, and sighed, and sat. In sign language he tried to reassure me and after a while I understood that the train would be stopping at the next station in about fifteen minutes, and that was as good as I was going to get. All I could do was wait and hope that Jennifer wasn't freaking out even more than I was. No phone, no idea where I was now, etc...

True to his word, the train did finally stop in about fifteen minutes. But as I found myself looking out the window wondering which side to exit on, I was looking into a pitch black train yard - not a well-lit train station. I walked back a few cars and the women who helped me the first time found me again and used a special key to unlock and door and I stuck my head out - nothing but ice cold air in my face, an old steel train in front of me, and a three foot drop at my feet. In an instant I felt like a hobo on an adventure, and I was willing to jump out and take my chances, but the woman who now had become my sherpa took my elbow and motioned for me to wait. She returned within seconds donning a pair of gloves, then pushed past me and I watched her hop out the door into the darkness. I jumped out behind her, we each bundled up and I followed her towards the front of our train.

I looked around and could see our train, another train right next to us that didn't appear to be operational, and the occasional sheen from a steel railroad track glistening under the Chinese moonlight. I followed her all the way to the front amazed at how sincerely caring these people are, then we took a hard left and began hopping over rows and rows of tracks. We plodded along, sometimes glancing over at each other and laughing outloud. Suddenly, we stopped and waited as a huge locomotive passed in front of us, it's powerful beam cutting through the darkness like a white knife. It lit up our faces for an instant as we waited, then we simply continued on towards wherever she was taking me.

We climbed over more tracks until we eventually had trekked across the entire rail yard! I felt relieved that we weren't killed and we both began to chuckle some more as we continued walking. I never felt for an instant that she didn't know exactly where she was going but I looked around and saw no sign of humanity whatsoever, not even darkened shacks or fires in barrels, nothing at all. Finally, I got a glimpse of a small light ahead in the distance. A small building was lit with a single bulb - it wasn't a station, it was a small brick structure but as luck would have it, there was a taxi with it's motor running and lights on that had just dropped someone off. My sherpa flagged him down, explained the situation, and within seconds I had a ride out of the train yard. She didn't flinch as I gave her a huge hug (the Chinese don't hug when they meet, or leave, but I just couldn't help myself), she just smiled and waved and walked back the way we came.

I sat back and tried to relax as the taxi drove slowly through dark streets, down into what felt like tunnels and small alley ways. I remembered that Xi'an is hillsides and mountains and the wall surrounding the city is still intact, but I wasn't prepared for the security gate. Well, it is China afterall. We were stopped by an armed guard at a gate. Our headlights glared ahead as the driver got out, gestured for several minutes, motioned for me to show myself and again, as luck would have it, the guard begrudgingly opened a gate and waved us through. I have no idea where we were or why we were locked in, but within fifteen minutes I was walking back into the KFC with camera in hand, and quite a story to tell Jennifer.

I even managed to snap a picture of the lady who found my camera (will put that up as soon as I get my own computer up on the net)!

Next in Xi'an, the Terra Cotta Warriors!

How do you eat a starfish?

From Beijing_FoodWalk005

I didn't even know you could eat a starfish! More on that in the Wangfujing Street Market section of this post...

These days I'm juggling two lives; my travel life with Jenny here in China is literally exploding everyday - new experiences, scenes, people, almost every hour is something different requiring so much thinking and interacting and navigating that we are exhausted by the end of the day, and overwhelmed most of the time with all five senses on full blast. My other life, my 'mistress' Jenn calls her, is this blog. And juggling how to share what we are experiencing with our friends and family is also exciting and new, but just like writing technical manuals, or teaching English classes, I never really seem to catch up!! Ignoring the cost of internet here at the Marriott (Grrrr!), here is what we've been doing since we got here to Beijing.

We had to hit the big stuff first; Tian'an Men Square, the Forbidden City, the Terra Cotta Warriors, the Great Wall...living here is teaching us to adjust our expectations so we are learning to be really, truly flexible. Like when we open a menu after a long morning to find no English or pictures and we've been looking for this restaurant for three hours, or we have to stop everything and find an electrical outlet so we can recharge the camera battery (Doh!), or we end up spending twice what food is worth because we don't haggle hard enough, or we get mauled in the street by homeless begging children so desperate for money we have to physically pry them loose, or we discover that we have to take a ten hour train ride to Xian to see the Terra Cotta Army (we decided not to), we are learning to plan when we can but expect the unexpected...always.

Click the blue underlined titles below to go the pictures and videos...

Tian'an Men Square

From Beijing_Tian'anSquare

This famous architectural complex is even bigger in real life than the images we've all seen on CNN. If it wasn't for it's gory history it would have been much like walking the Mall in Washington D.C.; government buildings on the left and right and throngs of tourists and locals in the middle snapping pictures of statues and flags and Red Army Soldiers on post. My favorite part is the huge portrait of Mao overlooking the football fields of concrete and monuments. Overall it was enjoyable, but sterile, although the Red Army soldiers are good sports and if you catch them at the right time they can be quite photogenic.

Forbidden City

From Beijing_ForCity002

The Forbidden City is at the top of the Square, all we had to do was continue walking as they are connected by the portrait of Mao. The crowds got thick at the entrance and remained heavy throughout along with dozens of locals hawking everything from keyfobs to personally guided tours. It was very Disneyesque but considering it's stature in Chinese importance, we expected as much. Overall, it is building after building of pageantry and exquisite royal sophistication and I was thankful all of the city is now open to us. We were awed at every turn, every glance up or down, and by the time we got through the entire complex we were looking for a taxi so we could head back and simply crash - it was overwhelming, but gorgeous.

New Year's Eve
Our new year's eve was the usual chaos and craziness we always go through because we both love celebrating new year's so we try to find the best place to get the most from the occasion as we can and Chinese New Years did not disappoint. Our hotel found a reservation for us (a day before!) at a recommended Chinese restaurant that also had a floor show. We were amazed by not only the dinner, but we watched an acrobat, a dancer with a dozen different masks that magically appeared out of thin air, a magician, and a beautiful girl who played a traditional Chinese instrument that everybody has heard when you eat at any Chinese restaurant (except here in China!)..it was all fantastic and everybody was enjoying the new year's eve with us, and us with them. Xin Yiang Hau!! (Happy New Year)

From China Videos

After two false starts at bars we could have fallen asleep in, we rushed back to the bar street, Sanlitun Lu, and a few hours before midnight the city began to erupt as if going to war. I can't describe the noise and deafing chaos but it was like nothing we had ever seen - take every fireworks display you've seen and throw them all into the middle of the street, with traffic still going strong, and you've got Chinese New Year. I took so many videos we used up our memory because words can't do it justice - amazing fun!!

WangFujing Street

From Beijing_FoodWalk005

It's joked that the Chinese will eat anything and I'd say that's a fair assessment. I'd seen the street market on National Geographic so we thought we knew what to expect, but as usual we were stunned at what the Chinese people consider haute cuisine. From pancakes, to beetles, to snakes, to starfish - the street market made us gag, and laugh, and feel like we had truly seen some of authentic China this evening...I had some veal, some dumplings, and some eel, and Jenn had some BubbleTea, but that was all we could manage considering our stomachs are not 100% in the first place. Oh, and you eat a starfish after a cook flash fries it for you and puts it on a stick and you just eat it like a lollipop!

Beijing Nightlife
We put up some more videos of nightlife around these parts, and I've managed to find an editor so they are shorter and filled with more high-quality entertainment now!

The Great Wall

From Beijing_Wall006

Coming soon, more text to describe our day of climbing the Great Wall of China...till then, take a look at the pics!! - it was so amazing I will post that experience asap...

Peace, and Xing Yiang Hau!! (Happy New Year)

Our first Chinese meal...

Although we are in Beijing right now, the last few days up to coming here were hectic - but really rewarding. We packed up from Shanghai and took the train to DanYang, got our luggage headed towards our new city, checked into our new hotel, saw our apartment, signed our teaching contracts, took a trip to the local police station, and finally had our first authentic Chinese lunch and although we were still in the same clothes we had been wearing for three days (our luggage has not arrived from Shanghai). Overall it has been a great experience.

The school sent over a driver to pick us up at our new hotel, and we met the V.P and the Dean of Foreign Affairs, along with another host from their sister school, which is less than 10 minutes away. Ms. ChenYoung, along with everyone was glad to see us and we took another tour of my campus, had our passports copied, and then they escorted us up to see our apartment. Teaching contracts always include either an apartment, or a housing allowance, along with other benefits such as internet access, paid utilities, etc. Along with a monthly salary, travel allowance, medical allowance, and having to teach only 3 - 4 forty minute classes a day - teaching in another country can be a really great adventure. However, Jenn and I had seen the outside of the teacher's dorms and placated each other by saying not to get our hopes up, and as we walked up the five flights of stairs to the top, we were already breathless by the time we walked in the front door. But it was so much better than we expected! A two bedroom apartment with two queen beds, plenty of storage space, small kitchen but with a gas stove, microwave, all cooking utensils, bottled water service, western bathroom and shower, dining room, two patios, a computer, tv and dvd player - and hard wood floors throughout. With some rearranging we could be very comfortable here for a year - no problem! Our spirits soaring, Mr. Chen said it was time for lunch.

Eating is so important here they make it a bigger deal than we do in the states, or elsewhere actually. Since nobody eats alone, bigger restaurants are designed as banquet halls, with separate rooms for their guests. For example, our hotel has one floor dedicated to dining and there are probably over 30 rooms complete with table service for eight (always round so you can share all of the food dishes) and some tables are bigger of course. Two servers start serving your room but we have had as many as six coming and going and the door is always closed for privacy. These small rooms fill with the smells of food along with the haze of cigarette smoke too as everybody in this country seems to smoke incessantly. It is all very enjoyable once you get used to it and as we sat down for lunch, Jenn and I explained that we love this country and want to eat like the Chinese eat. They ordered for us, of course, because nothing was in English, but they were very polite and asked us everything we liked, but nothing about what we didn't like.

The first courses came quickly; a large bowl of cold water filled with very small, unpeeled shrimps. Then a bowl of tofu, both noodles and clumps in a brown sauce. Next came the pork meatballs as big as tennis balls. Then came the beef chops, sliced thin with the bone still in, slathered in a black bean sauce followed by two pots of green vegetables, bok choy and what they call Chinese collard greens. The next dish was a whole fish, split down the middle into two pieces, each with a gaping eye and surprisingly long teeth. We tried some of everything and I think I enjoyed the food more than Jenn, but she was polite and managed what she could. There was hot water, and cold tea, and a warm wine unique to this city that the locals are very proud of - I thought it was delicious and everyone had a nip or two as we toasted each other throughout the meal.

The conversation was not strained at all, we were honest about our quest for adventure here in China and our need to see the real country instead of what the media presents and the V.P, Mr. Wong, told us about his travels to North Carolina, our driver did not speak a word of English but seemed to laugh at the appropriate times and they translated for him whenever he wanted to tell us something. Mr. Chen had recently been to Australia for two months, and Ms. ChenYoung spent more time than was deserved teaching us several quick Mandarin sayings for our further survival. Hau! became our most widely used word the rest of the day (it means very good!). Most of the talk centered around the upcoming Chinese New Year, they were all set for a vacation starting tomorrow. The Chinese are known for getting to know the person long before they even mention business, and we talked very little about our work for the school. Travels, expectations, light politics (they are very excited about our new President), history, etc. And as Mr. Wong explained the differences in when the courses come in a Chinese meal we weren't too surprised when noodles and rice came to the table at the end of our meal - "to fill the empty pockets in our stomachs" we were told with a laugh. Everyone made toasts to our new relationship, our driver smoked the entire time but offered everyone a cig each time he lit up, and I felt that for the short time we had known our hosts we could sincerely say "Xin Yiang Hau!" which means Happy New Year! and we had made some friends.

More paperwork followed, then a ride over the city police station where our passports were documented, then back to the school where contracts were signed in both Chinese and English, revisions were made, and by the end of the day our driver dropped us off at the hotel and we were beat, but proud of ourselves. With this sort of adventure comes situations that are completely unknown moments before, but we are in the deep end of the pool now, and swimming as fast as possible. We are scheduled to move our luggage into the apartment when we desire and don't need to be back at the school until the 5th of February.

We were surprised when we got a phone call the next morning at 9am asking us not to eat breakfast and that the driver would be there shortly to take us over to another city for a full medical examination! As we jumped out of bed and put on the same clothes again for the third day - we gave each other a kiss and repeated our mantra, "It's all part of the adventure."