The Bell

It was dusk.

(The view out of the front of the monastery, notice the moon.)

I sat on a wood bench part of a circle of forty people in the court yard of a monastery with Woodenfish students and monks. The temple was located on the top of mountain above the noise and chaos of the Chinese cities which we could see below. We sat in a circle drinking green and black tea picked from the very hills around us. A sort of talent show was going on, first the monks would show off a skill, then a Woodenfish member would take a turn and try to match it. If there was any sort of competition, the monks won.

The first presentation by the monks was classical Chinese music on a historic instruments that I cannot identify. As the monk plucked the stringed instrument the notes seemed to wave over us and fit to the natural contours of the bamboo forest around us. Another monk presented a ti chi demonstration, which convinced me a human body can definitely learn to flow enormousness amounts of energy. When he struck the stone ground with his feet we could all feel it, even at a distance.

Our group did a song or two, and some dancing presentations. After there was a short Q&A with the abbot. I winced a little bit at some of the questions, luckily none of them were too bad. Not everyone on this trip has a Buddhist background -academic or practicing. Halfway through the session the monks began to ring the massive temple bell. One girl asked why the bell is rung, the abbot gave an answer related to making the sound of the dharma echoing throughout the universe.

Unsatisfied with the answer, the girl just asked the question again. The abbot sat for a moment puzzled by the question. He told the group to listen to the bell in silence for three minutes. It was probably my most favorite three minutes of the trip. We sat listening to the bell being struck, then hearing the ring slowly be absorbed into the valley bellow, then hearing the bell be struck again as soon as the noise faded beyond our ability to hear. This moment has added to my craving for a Buddhist monastic life, or something along the lines of life centered around practice. It was really great for the group, the rest of the evening flowed quite smoothly and it was entirely due to these three minutes of sitting.

When the Q&A ended it was dark, the bats fluttered overhead and the mosquitoes bit our legs. Rather than going to bed I wandered around the temple into the various shrines to observe the candle lit Buddhas. This was perhaps one of the most enjoyable evenings of my entire trip to China. Since everyone had gone to bed I was alone in all of these shrines, halls, and rooms. I think normally I would have been a little scared, it's kind of like wandering around a church at night. There was something about this experience though that was so warming. Gazing into these Buddhas among the incense and candles I could feel the pulse of samsara, a squeeze of birth and a release of death again, again, and again.

I could hear the bell even though it stopped being rung hours ago. I lied down in front of the main shrine on the cool stone and gazed at the candle lit Buddha. I tried to imagine what he saw, which is life as the way it ultimately is, and probably on a geological time scale. As Buddha stares out those temple doors out into the valley he must see cities go up and down, forest be cut and regrow, people come and go, die and be reborn.

And I, this silly "I," am obviously here for sometime more than any "I" can accomplish. 

Impression Putuo

You may remember the opening of the Beijing Olympics four years ago. Much of the opening was designed by Zhang Yimou, who is probably known better for directing Hero, but he also designed about a dozen other live shows around China that focuses on the local landscape and history. Below is one of my most favorite depictions of Guanyin from during Olympic opening. All the performers are deaf.

Next, I must introduce you to the specific show: "Impression Putuo" that I saw on a neighboring Zujiajianzhen island, but first please watch this video before reading the rest of this post, too much of this experience is ineffable -so please watch! Also, enjoy the site -it's awesome.

It's not easy to say a stage with 2,000 seats moves, but it does! Below is the entrance to the entrance to this show. Guanyin which gave us a slight hint of what we were in for. The significance of Mt. Putuo or in Chinese Putuoshan is that it is one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains in China. The mountain itself is a good size island covered in temples and shrines devoted to Guanyin.

One character in our group was interesting in acquiring a responsible amount of alcohol before the show, which proved to be difficult. A five minute walk down the road to a shack with one lightbulb selling unlabeled jars of what we would basically moonshine in the US turned out to be a successful excursion. The smallest bottle was a liter of baijiu, for some reason the did not sell pijiu (beer.) This stuff smells like gasoline mixed with sharpies and runs somewhere in the 45-55% range and costed around $2 US. We made it through less than a quater of the bottle before we were both buzzed, then poured the rest out.

After the show the bus driver held up a few jars as examples of plum wine that he offered to get us at the special price of 15RMB each ($2.50 US - a deal for plum wine.) We mentioned we were interested but the jars never came through. Ultimately, we hoped he had not been drinking those when he was waited for us. We made it back safely.

Our tickets costed around $26 which was rather on the high side for China, but considering there are about a hundred live actors it suddenly didn't seem so bad. The government also pumps a ton of money into this show to keep it running smoothly. We wandered in past the gates down a long path to the circular stadium. We walked in across the first set which was a small temple or shrine, the other sets were not in view. They told us nothing about what was going to happen, only that it was a show about Buddhism. In other words, I had no idea what was about to happen.

We waited about 15 minutes. The best way I can describe the seating arrangement is imagine sitting in a circular movie theater about 150 feet in diameter with walls 30 feet high enclosing about 3/4 of the way around. 

Soft music began to play which grew louder and louder. Suddenly massive panels 15 feet wide and also thirty feet tall rolled in from around from the perimeter of circular seating arrangement and completely enclosing the audience, which blocked any view of the set -much like curtains would. The lights turned on, a dozen actors emerged, and the show began.

Each of the actors who came out pretended to be everyday citizens of China explaining their woes in life. Suddenly they began to project images on the rolling walls that enclosed us, the music and the cries of the people grew louder. My friend translated bits and pieces of the different woes but it had become too late! The baijiu had kicked in and each translation made less sense than the previous. The pinnacle of the pain emerged at the top of the wall - a man ready to jump, to take his life, as he was so deeply in pain.

The other actors quickly talked the man down, perhaps with words of the Buddha. The images grew crazier and the overdramatic music grew even louder.

The panels opened up and the music stopped to exhibit the scene of a tranquil mountain side with a temple perched at the top. 

Hundreds of hot red tips of incense wandered in on stage carried by the many actors. The red hot offerings glowed as they wandered up to the temple. Lord Buddha appeared at the top of the steps in an illuminated figure next to the temple, the glowing incense striving toward him, longing to shed impurities.

The walls enclosed us again, the audience was slowly rotated to a new stage. As we moved I watched the constellations turn around us, it was the only time I saw stars during my cumulative 3 months in China.

The walls reopened to a scene of a small village on a lake. People flouted around in small boats and a short story unveiled itself within the mock village.

Below is a another story that was entirely projected. A Buddhist master and his apprentice (to the right,) wander in the woods find an attractive young woman trying to cross the river (the blue thing to the left.) The master breaks his vows by picking up the woman and carrying her across the stream. The young woman thanks the master and they part ways. Several hours later the young apprentice ask his master why he broke his vows by carrying the woman. The master is confused for a moment, then remembers and says: "I only carried that woman for a minute across the stream, while you have carried her for several hours." The moral being that monks further down the path can break vows and precepts as they gain the ability to control them.

Next, groups of people with high power flashlights danced. It was perhaps the simples part of the show but definitely one of the most visually entertaining.

Much of the show was simply playing with light, another interesting part was when the monks would leap from behind rocks to be met by a flash of light illuminating the saffron robes.

The large rocks they hid behind were moveable and at one point they all spun together. In combination with projecting on them there was the metaphor transfered of impermanence. The rocks shook and crumbled and mashed together with impressive power and formed new rocks, endlessly cycling.

A dramatic ending began to tie up the 70 minutes show. Emphasis on life and projections of animals and the hundred or so actors began to go everywhere. The strage rotated a full 360 degrees with the panels open to exhibit the various sets.

Prayer cards handed out before the show which we filled out, they were then collected in these glowing lotuses carried by the actors and were to be placed in the temple for three days. The format of the prayer card was to wish a particular person well.

"Impression Putuo" finally closed with spectacular light show.

无锡 (Wúxī)

First let's introduce a few characters, who are also real people. On the left in the red/pink shirt is Tenzin, a Woodenfish leader and a very kind fellow with a great sense of humor. On the right in the saffron robes is Venerable Prah, who I became good friends with over the course of the two week program. Prah and Tenzin are both studying in New Zealand, Prah is originally from the Bangkok area.

As we walked into what I later called Buddhist Disneyland I asked Venerable Prah what his impression was.

"I don't think Monks live here."

Turns out the Chinese refer to it as the Lingshan Wonderland.

Lingshan does not have much of a spiritual feeling, but it still creates a sense of awe. This place was much more designed to flash government wealth while hosting massive international Buddhist conventions, as well as become an iconic tourist destination. We participated.

You can visit the parks website here.

There was a lot of incredible art. This was part of a wall that depicted the entire life of Buddha.

This park is host to the Lingshan Great Buddha, claimed to have the largest Buddha -but so do many other places- for a reference of size the Great Buddha is 288ft. while the Statue of Liberty is 151ft. I was too tired this day to climb the steps, so I took photos from a comfortable distance.

The park also claims to have the largest bronze hand, which I believe, it's about 12 meters tall with the wrist sitting on the ground like someone is reaching out from under the earth. It's a bizarre sight.

The other unique statue was a Laughing Buddha of sorts, an incarnation Maitreya, covered in a hundred children. Buddha is roughly the size of a minivan while the kids only range is size of a gallon of milk to a watermelon. This is a common statue I have seen all over the Shanghai region and is suppose to be good for a happy and prosperous future. The children on the statue were suppose to be mischievous, so they were climbing all over Buddha, sticking their hands in his belly button and dangling from his arms.

One of the shows at the Wonderpark is "The Birth of Buddha" which happens about ever two hours at this park. Loud dramatic music plays and the fountain comes to life. Soon the Lotus opens and inside is Buddha who then get's hosed down by the dragons. There is lots of meaning in the way the water moves and the amount of jets of water. I don't mean to be too cynical.

In later research about this fountain and show, I found out that the water is supposedly very pure and the thing to do as a tourist is to drink some. I don't know how true this is, but it's an interesting idea as there is a large emphasis on purity at this specific show.

The idea of the park was to hold a temple from every major type of Buddhism. So far they have four Chinese, Tibetan, Brahman (Indian,) and South East Asia in construction. The Tibetan Temple was gorgeous, but no where close to the actual tradition, which was true for all the temples in different ways. I doubt there are any plans to build a Zen or Japanese style temple, although it does hold some sort of Zen meeting/meditation hall. Hatred towards the Japanese seems especially strong in this part of China.

Wuxi Lingshan Wonderland Tibetan Temple

The Brahman Temple was the pinacle of strange things in this Buddhist park. First of all it was unbelievabley massive.

Below is the interior of the Brahman Temple seen above.

And inside it held one of the most bizarre shows I have ever seen in my life. Below is two images of the theatre ceiling that constantly changes colors. 

The following video with terrible quality has no justice to awesomely strange 30 minute show, however it was the best one I could find. It's a relatively new show so there is not too much info on the web about it. This show really transcends words and puts most of us into some culture shock. I love it.

There was a massive international Buddhist convention of sorts at this park just a year or so ago. We met a man who bought about a hundred new audi's totally something like half a million USD, and when he went to sell them used he sold them for more than the new price because people wanted cars that had safely transported monks and nuns, it was good luck of sorts. He also bought us all lunch that day and took us to his office, I'm still not really sure what he does for work.

How I got around China

If you're wondering how I got around rural China this most recent summer, this is how: cheat sheets from Caitlin and a ton of luck.

Foshan

I'm now in Foshan. I am couch surfing with lovely host who do not have AC. It is much hotter here than other places I have been too. At night I spead a blanket on the balcony and attempt sleep there in boxer shorts as it is too hot inside, I try to imagine myself in a Maine winter too. During the day I wander about the small pockets of town that are still old. I have a camera in one hand and a lonely planet in the other, making me stick out beyond belief. But it's okay -once you wear shorts you never have a chance at striking the Chinese as understanding their modern culture.

Blue Hair Buddha

Chinese City Streets

Cheap prefabricated slabs crumble under the feet of thousands as they wander slowly through the city. The sun hangs overhead, the concrete radiating waves of  heat preventing any extra exertion such as rushing to work but for some reason not the drunk like pushing everywhere. The women hold frilly umbrellas in attempt to prevent a tan, I myself have become quite tan in China without ever being in the direct sun for more than five minutes.

Shops are tucked under attempts of modern buildings which have only achieved bland hard cubes of living space. The men and children stare while all the women look away. Shop keepers and vendors yell at anyone whose eye lingers on their products for more than a second in attempts to draw them in. I stumble along with a river of people down the sidewalk, passing the ugliest dogs, and the aches of a country between a time of intense poverty and a plastic consumer dream.

How long until change in China?

I have been gaining much more depth in my understanding and connections in China. It is a country far more complex than the US. It takes years of living in China before one really understands the culture, politics, and how things work. But in my cumulative three months in China one thing that is clear: it's an unstable country headed for change.

In the next five to ten years there will be a lot of change in the government role. The top 1% in China have left over the last decade, they're completely gone now. Irreversible damage has been done with the one child policy that should have been faded out in the 90's. Dissatisfaction is growing among everyone. I doubt there will be revolution, but an end is coming to the amount of government control. Some freedom in thought, action, and speech is coming soon -I hope. In many ways anything can happen.

An Evening in Guangzhou

I'm in Guangzhou now and already teaching at an English immersion summer camp called "American Scene". Our councilor t-shirts have american flags on them -let's just say we stand out on the street. Luckily the school did not actually pick the shirts. Despite the uniforms we're actually doing some really cool alternative education practices for China, but I'll get into that later after I catch you all up on Woodenfish.

However, I need to tell you a little about today...

So the power goes out and the kids (ages 8-10,) screamed pretending to be scared. The moment it went dark one kid grabbed a half dozen scissors and ran straight out the door. I blocked the other kids from running out while Nico (a CIT,) went after the kid. Apparently when Nico caught him the boy claimed he had to go to the bathroom badly, Nico thought this was BS -like anybody would- and dragged him back to the class. When the lights turned back on there was a big wet spot on his pants. These kids are more than a handful.

This evening I went out to dinner with a bunch of teachers at the Beijing restaurant. I don't know what it's really called, we just name them after their food style. Anyways, the food was awesome.

When we left the restaurant these dudes in the photo below were sitting on the street corner playing a banjo. My heart twinged for Zoe, but then I had a good laugh at the Chinese style music adapted to banjo. We hung out for a few minutes and they played us a song, there was mutual entertainment on both sides. The guy playing the Banjo was definitely the most clothed out of the five of them. It's fairly accepted for men to wander around anywhere they want at night without a shirt. Seriously, they grocery shop without a shirt past 6pm. This group were a bunch of construction workers relaxing after a long day. God... or more like Buddha: I love Asia.

Chinese Food

Chinese food is pretty strange in taste to Americans. The Chinese really do have their own pallet for taste. The food is all lightly fried at high temperatures and can vary from very spicy, sickeningly sweet, or incredibly bland. There are a few dishes I like which are basically lightly fried vegetables and lots of salt. My favorite restaurants are of course the local ones. They're usually the first floor of somebodies home. Plastic table and chairs are crammed into a typically 20 x 20 ft. room and a kitchen out back which is often just outside.

A particular favorite meal I had with Josh and Zack was in a small city. We walked for maybe an hour but only found chain restaurants. Eventually we walked far enough to cross the red-light district. Technically prostitution is illegal in China but it's all over of course. There's loads of ways they signal customers. One of the more common methods is pink striped barber polls/pink lite shop.

Turns out red or I guess pink-light district was the area crammed with these family restaurants having nothing to do with the prostitution business. There was also somewhat of a night market with kids running around, it was all mixed together -very strange, but very China. We found a good looking restaurant and sat down. Josh and I explained to Zack what we wanted and he ordered it. The room was white tiled floors with white concrete walls and blinding fluorescent lights. The food was served within five minutes of ordering as it pretty much always does in China.

While eating I had to brush a cockroach off my leg -and this was one of the cleaner restaurants. I've had some pretty good luck not getting sick despite the risky food choices I've been making. It's worth it though, the food taste much better and it tends to be far less oily.

Speaking of oil, 10% of the cooking oil in China is recycled. By this I mean there is a market for people to wander around at night after the restaurants closed and collect oil out of sink drains and other waste liquid places. It's collected in barrels, sold, "purified," and then used again. Yum! I'm tired of Chinese food but it still beats the American fast-food sold here. I miss coffee, bread, fresh fruit and vegetables.

Nuns & Friends

Venerable Yifa (pronounce her name like "e"-fa,) has been guiding the Buddhism in China Woodenfish Program for the past four years. Each year she chooses a different province in China to explore, this year of course being the general Shanghai area. We ventured quite a distance from Shanghai (about 5-6 hours by bus,) to visit loads and loads of sites. Yifa is fantastic, I really liked her. She is a Taiwanese nun from Fo Guang Shan Temple. She has spent quite a bit of time in the US, so we had a hard time surprising her. She's kind, articulate, has a sense of humor, and born leader. Below is Yifa and the Abbot during a Q&A. The photo might have been when I asked a ridiculous questions.

I showed Yifa the photo below of my brother Oliver dressed as a nun with the Ghost Busters. Yifa gazed at the photo for a few moments, probably trying to figure out what was happening,  then laughed out loud and said: "Good, the Catholics need more nuns." I beginning to think the weird things the Chinese and Taiwanese eat don't really match up to the strange things we do in the States. I suppose this was some event in Portland of running around like a nun that Oliver either organized or was a major role. I'm not really sure.

My two buddies for the week were Josh (on the left,) and Zack (on the right, plus Buddha in the middle (in the clouds,)) Josh is from the Midwest and had an awesome sense of humor. He was also very tolerant of several difficulties on the trip. Zack is from Seattle, studies at Fo Guang Shan Temple, and is fluent in Mandarin -which I totally took advantage of. Also, he studies happiness, which I've only joked about studying myself, but now the path has come into my vision (however, still horrendously blurred.) There were other fun folks who I shall mention later on. 

Kungfu

At Tiantai Mountain we went to the temple then met up with Yifa's friends. One of them was a kungfu master/unlicense chyropractor/medicine man. About a year ago Yifa took the wrong medicine (Chinese medicine) and became paralized. I'm not smashing Chinese medicine, some of it works since it's still practiced, but clearly in this situation it did not. So this Kungfu master/unlicense chyropractor/medicine man fixed Yifa in three weeks. He did a small Kungfu demonstration which unraveled quickly.

The type of kungfu this guy knows is about cultivating power and sending it to one place. It's not about quick jabs or dance around. It's quick, powerful, and minimal moves to kill -I guess. He made it clear he was 57 years old, and looked pretty healthy too.

His first demonstration was pushing Josh's two arms with his two fingers. Kind of like arm wrestling. You can guess who won.

His demonstrations continued to pushing other people. He would simply push other people without any struggle. Josh held his hips while the Kungfu guy stood virtically. He just walked into Josh, who was leaning all the way into him, and Josh slid as he walked with ease. It was pretty amazing. He was a fairly legitament Kungfu dude.

Naomi volunteered to test his stregth, they tried to come up with another test of stregth, but he was kind of doing the thing of: "Meh, just a woman." He told her to try to hit him. She got pumped up and jumped around a bit, he laughed, she did a few quick jabs and punched him in the face. He was totally caught off guard, the group gasped, he didn't seem to show any pain.  Turns out Naomi is a european karate champion.

I don't have a photo of them fighting, I was sort of/kind of cowering in the back.

They had one more round, both were quick, he was completely on the defense but lightly slapped her face then it was over. I had a hard time watching, there was some humiliation going on at both ends. Kungfu dude lite up a cigarette, then said: "I don't dance around and do quick jabs, I just pull out the heart. I cut skin like tofu." He was kind of a sore loser, but he could probably do it.

Later on he claimed he could cure illness just by waving his hand over somebody and guide the yin into balance with the yang. It was a bit out there, but then again Kungfu guy was kind of out there with this skills he showed us.

Dr. Max

It turns out I have the highest medical training in the group -Wilderness First Responder, or another way to think of it is I have half the training of an EMT. However, there are major differences, my training is based for medicine in the wilderness, so I'm trained to make do with little or no medical tools or medicine. Also, its fairly "rough" medicine. By that I mean I am trained to know what to do when peoples intestines fall out, not so much along the lines of cosmetic issues, but I still have treated some rashes.

So far on this trip I have had to bring one person to the hospital for food poisoning in combination with heat stroke. I have also treated a bunch of minor issues like skin infections, insect bites, and more heat issues. A lot of it is waiting it out, people's bodies react when brought to new environments. Later on I heard that 18 out of the group of 30 last year had diarrhea.

One of the difficulties I did not expect to deal with is the Chinese believe 100% in Chinese medicine. During the food poisoning/heat exhaustion Yifa ordered the Chinese medical treatment of pinching this guys neck until it bruised -it put him in a lot of pain. Apparently it wicked the heat out. I asked for it to stop but Yifa ordered it to continue, so they did. The pain kind of distracted him from vomiting. I told the individual that he could ask for it to stop, he didn't, so I figure it was best to let this one fly by.

We got him to the hospital and everyting was okay. I feel some pressure now being the group medic. Later on somebody passed out at a temple due to the heat, luckily there was a doctor at the temple who took care of them.

I hope nothing really bad happens, but I suppose I'm ready for it.

The Beginning of Woodenfish Program

I am currently participating in the Woodenfish Buddhism in China program, which is exploring Han Buddhism in the Shanghai area. It's two weeks long with about two dozen students and seven staff (mostly professors, a monk, and a nun.)

The daily flow is eating at around 7:30-8:30 in the morning, getting on a tour bus, and exploring two to three temples and/or sights a day. There's a constant information being thrown at us while we attempt to overcome cultural barriers. In the evenings we typically have free time after five to go find food and occasionally the old street or night market.

Making Candy at a shop on the Old Street

We have been staying in temples and hotels, so far about a 50/50 mix. We ride the same bus everyday with the same chain smoking crazy driver. Our first guide was Johnny, I don't know his chinese name, but he was hired by Woodenfish to show us around. Every morning he would start us with a bad joke then tell us about the temple or town we were going to that day. Our second guide repeats every other word twice. She can be hard to listen to but has incredible stories, for example she was in the Red Guard.

At every temple we visit we sit down with the abbot and have a one to two hour Q&A. Since it's usually after lunch, and in an airconditioned room (a break from the 90-105F weather,) I usually fall asleep. Seriousl, I try so hard to stay awake, but it's the same story with the bus, my body just wants to recover. The heat is intense, espeacially when it's humid, it has been (luckily?) the largest problem for the group. Luckily I have been getting better at stay awake the whole day, and these interviews are really interesting. I get to ask the abbots personal questions about how they managed to get through the cultural revolution, how they meditate, what made them want to become monks... it's awesome.

Shanghai

I flew into Shanghai with no reservations of any type with two days to kill. The women who were in charge of find tourist places to go at the airport basically had it with me, especially after I tried to write on a business card (forgot about that one! I definitely know better.) I recalled that a few other people in my program which started in two days mentioned on facebook they were staying open at a hostel. I cracked open my lonely planet (but not so lonely routes,) and sure enough the hostel was in it.

It was fairly easy to find using the subway, and when I arrived they had some bunks open in the dorm rooms. It was about $12 a night and pretty clean. I found a few other people in my woodenfish program and walked around town with them a bit, but they became jetlag, so eventually we headed back.

Shanghai is a fairly insane Chinese city with American, French, and British archetecture scattered all throughout the skyline. It's a prtty weird mix to say the least. It's also a pretty nutty city. Walking the Bund was interesting/intense too. It's a walk next to the river, on oneside is all the old French and British buildings, and on the other is all the modern Chinese skyscrappers. Tons of people wanted photographs with us, and it got old quick. After that we escaped to a shopping district of sorts (it was within walking distance,) which was a total zoo with packed streets.

Tea House

Mao on the Bund

In the evening I walked to the Jing'an Temple (below) near my hostel.

Lincang Airport

Lincang airport is smaller than the Portland Jetport, or to put it in prospective it had one gate, one runway, and one baggage carrolsel. Around noon the taxi pulled up to the gate a woman stood in the way and told the taxi to pull over. I got out and walked up to the woman. Behind her was the parkinglot and then the airport itself. Thirty-foot flames licked into the air just in front of the building. It seemed to be a car on fire, I couldn't tell.

"Accident?" I asked.
"Yes," the woman guarding the gate answered, I got the feeling that was the only word she knew.

I looked back at the taxi driver who was standing by his car. He pointed at his car and said something in Mandarin along the lines of: "Dude, it doesn't look good, let's go back to town." I paid him, grab my bags, and went over to the woman by the gate.

Police and airport security were running around, sweating profusely. They put up some police tape around the parking lot, kicked out everyone they could, then slamed the gate shut. For the next ten minutes the fire grew larger and larger until at last they started dumping water on whatever was burning.

I sat outside the gate for the next three hours on the pavement. People came and left, but one Chinese guy sat next to me almost the whole time. I worried the airport wouldn't open until tomorrow. The Chinese guy assured me it would open at 3:30 (just 3 hours after the fire,) and as he promised, it did.

We walked right in, police stood outside, calm now, and with looks of relief. I tried about asking what happened, and I got one of two answers: "Impossible," or "I don't know." We walked in through the parkinglot, I stuck next to my new friend even though I could barely communicate with him (just one or two words at a time,) and he decided to walk right over where the fire happened.

Nobody seemed to care that we were walking over the incident spot. I remember walking over the charred pavement, it smelled like a campfire. A man with a broom, a cart, and a hose, swept up and washed away the last ashes of what happened. Every seemed to pretend nothing happened, and after a while, it really felt like nothing happened.

The only after affect was my 5:50 flight was delayed an hour. I spent the entire time waiting at a tea stand with my new friend. The girl serving the tea gave my friend her phone number, I guess I became his wing man. We drank six or seven pots of green tea, I peed like three times, and was never charged a dime even though I tried to pay several times. We boarded the plane and went out ways. My friend headed to Gongdong and I was off to Shanghai.

Yunnan Culture & Another School Visit

Yunnan is the most diverse province in terms of ethnicity and culture. It's known for many novelities, including cigarette bongs which are massive bamaboo bongs that seem to cover one's face, used to smoke just cigarettes. Seriously, in the first time in bong history, they're strictly for tobacco use. They smoke them on the street, in the restaurant, the bus driver even pulled over to smoke. The one below is the slightly more common steel bong. I wonder how long this has been going on, any why they don't chew tobacco, it would combine two of their favorite things: spitting and tobacco.

The upper half of Yunnan is a major tourist destination such as Dali. It's known for the incredible landscapes and Buddhism presence. The lower half is toured almost never. Lonely Planet had nothing to say about anything close to me, there is pracitically nothing on the internet, and I am constantly stared at as I am one of three white people in the region.

The Food:

Breakfast, like much of China, is noodles, and a very small meal. You walk up to a stand on the street, point out the size of bowl you want, one of three noodles you want (flat, and two different round/spagetti types,) which are then dunked in not quite boiling water for maybe 10 seconds at most. The bowls and chopsticks are kept in a steaming basket, possible to sterilize them a little since they're washed in a large bowl with a hose by the gutter. After the noodles they put in a broth, fresh chopped chives, hacked chicken or duck bits, and what I thougt was purple tofu (pig liver or kidey probably.) It was good. Lunch is rice with simple vegetable and meat fried dishes, and dinner is more complex similar dishes.

Then food poisoning struck.

It's rather mild, as in not like the time in Thailand. But still, I'm cleaned out, and my gut hurts like hell. My body is exhausted. I was lucky though, it only came out of one end, so far. Food is not clean, nor can I really keep myself or my hands clean. I wish I brought a crate of hand santizer, as bad as it is for your hands, I can't wash them. Restraurants don't have bathrooms, or even sinks (like in India.) Surprisingly in India you can find hand sanitizer in heavily traveled tourist areas. However, I am neither India nor a tourist destination.

An adventure to a neighboring village:

It was 7:30 in the morning, raining, and Caitlin and I were trying to share an umbrella walking down the street. We stopped and got some red bean buns which were really good. Then we got a bootleg taxi, paid $2.20, and were delivered an hour and a half a way in Yunxian. From Yunxian we met up with Christine, a young Chinese-American woman doing the same program as Caitlin. She was an absolute character and constantly cracking jokes, which took a lot of stress off the situation. We took bus from Yunxian to 40 minutes away in the town Christine taught at.

The bus took a steep dive off the main highway onto a narrow dirt road that snaked along the moutainsides until it at last it came to a village perched in a pass that gave way to steep slopes on either side. Tea, rice, corn, and other vegetables filled the thousands of terraces that went all the way from the bottom of the valley to the top of the mountain. Across the valley perched on the closest peak was an old monastary that was mostly abandond after it had been used as a military base during the culutrual revolution. Perhaps a few hermits occupied it now, there was nothing else on that mountain.

Christine was housed in a tradition Chinese building made of earth and wood, it was absolutely beautiful. The neighbor, or possibly owner of the house maintained an incredible garden with chickens and one duck (the chickens had accepted the duck as their own,) tucked in the back. Below is one area where staff is housed. The open first floor area is where a coffin maker stores his coffins, chickens, and anything he farmed.

The village itself was tiny, maybe a thousand or two at the most, and certainly almost all farmers. The elementary/middle school (known as a complete school in Chinese,) had about 800 students. To go to high school one must apply from middle school, pretty intimadating for an 8th grader. Unfortunately most of their futures were determind long ago by the government.

Today there was a competition between the boys and girls with using pronouns, which is pretty tough coming from Mandarin. I think the boys won, but not by much. All the girls are super shy in comparison. This girl was looking for a hint from her classmates.

The kids love their photos taken... this looks like a wolf pack.

Later we went on a walk through the village. It was super cloudy, this was one of few photos where you can see some of the village.