Thursday, March 25, 2010
Chilling in the Chong
hey there guys and gals!
sorry for the slow updates to the blog, we have been busy kicking it with Jin's family and were having a hard time signing on our restricted blog from the family computer. Thanks to the help of some crafty techies(Jin's cousin), we are now back online(to the whole internet) and able to post on here.... and of course watch silly youtube phish videos(youtube is blocked in china.) We got to Chongqing on saturday and have spent the past few days hanging around Jin's small town in the mountains and visiting with family members. the first two days we spent at different peoples birthday parties. they were pretty big events, and nothing too much different than back in the states. Both days we ate at restaurants with around 25 people spread over 3 large round tables. We started with lunch, then people hang out, drink, play games and talk until dinner time, when we ate again at the same restaurant.
The meals were awesome, and we got to try lots of great dishes. Most of the food was entirely unkosher! the closest thing to being kosher in china is being Muslim. If you say you dont eat pork, people immedietely think you are Muslim! There is a large Muslim population here, and we even got to stay in the "muslim quarter" of Xi'an, which is basically the center of town. At the birthday meals we ate thinly sliced cold beef with hot peppers and scallions served cold, pork in a bread tasting rice mush that is really good(kinda tastes like breaded chicken,) lots of different vegetables including an eggplant dish, lettuce root, steamed cauliflower, we also had a fish soup, and a tofu soup with green onions and little pork pieces. Lunches are the main attraction here in China, and dinners are usually much more simple. Chinese people say that the reason americans are so fat is because of their habit of eating small lunches and large dinners.
Jin's family lives in a small town at the edge of the Yangtze River about 30 minutes from the center of Chongqing. Chongqing is a crazy city! There is soo much traffic, people everywhere, almost no parks or green spaces, and tons of tall buildings everywhere. It resembles NYC from afar, but is a little more rough around the edges up close. There is tons of upscale shopping, but also way more smaller shops and industrial areas than we have seen in other cities. There are few major attractions here, so it seems like the best thing to do is just walk around and soak in the vibe. her parents have just finished the decorating of a newer and much fancier apartment closer to the city, where we will most likely be staying the next few days. The apartment is absolutely gorgeous and has great views of the River, bridges, a nice hill with a temple on top and some rough industrial areas as well! Her grandparents are most likely going to move in to this new place though as her mom and dad prefer to live in the small town(Wang Jiang) where Jin's Fathers factory is and where she grew up. We had a great lunch at her Grandparents apartment in center city and ate some more awesome home cooked food. The highlights for me were more of the breaded tasting pork with rice, a chicken with peanuts(kinda like Kung Pao), more tasty cauliflower, a chicken soup, and some roasted duck! I have eaten more duck this month than my entire life combined, and it is really good(sorry U of O!)
Jin's family is really nice, and more or less what I expected. Her dad is one of the hardest workers i have ever met. He wakes up around 7am and goes to work, then comes home around 1230 to eat lunch. Me and Jin(mostly Jin) have been making lunch for her folks but usually that task is up to Jin's mom, who comes home from her job teaching drawing at a school to make lunch. Jin's mom works from around 8 to 12, then has a 2 hour lunch break, then goes back to work, coming home around 5. Her dad does work on his computer while he waits for lunch to be finished, and only stops for around 15 minutes to quicly eat his bowl of rice and the vegetables or meat that were prepared as well. He is very thin and obviously works really hard, and usually does not want to eat more than a small amount, explaining that that is enough..... However, Jin's mom usually disagrees and pushes him to eat more and more! After lunch, Jin's dad heads back to work and only comes home for another dinner break for half an hour(just enough time to eat) and then heads back to work until somewhere between 8 and 11 at night! It reminds me of what life must have been like for my great grandfather, or Papa, working hard to get the hardware store to be successful or working late nights on an upcoming plumbing job or building project. His hard work and the risks he has taken(leaving the local factory job that insured steady(yet low) pay and benefits) has obviously paid off, as they seem to be living a very nice life, and have given Jin the ability to pursue the things that interest her. I am in awe of her fathers hard work and have a great deal of respect for what he has achieved.
life here certainly reminds of a vision of the 50s or 60s in the states. Jin's mother is a huge fan of Mah Jong and cards and continuously sits around card tables with her friends talking and playing games. People smoke EVERYwhere and simply throw their cigarettes on the floor of restaurants, busses, or anywhere else that wont catch on fire(or maybe even will!)
Last night they had a big family party for the people that came to town for Jin's Grandfathers Funeral. There was no eulogy or speeches, simply a bunch of people hanging out in a cheerful mood and watching silly game shows from Taiwan. Her Grandfather passed away a month ago, so people dont seem to upset about it at the moment(from what I have seen.) We ate a huge dinner with the family spread out over 2 tables in Jin's families living room. I was sitting next to Jin's Uncle who started telling me about his Ping Pong playing. Sensing my interest, probably because i wouldn't stop asking him about it(with the help of Jin's translation), he took us to the local community center/library where they have 3 tables set up in a little ping pong gym. He explained that when he was growing up in the 60s, that ping pong was the national craze and everyone played.... I immedietely thought of forrest gump! I got to play a few games with his 685yuen paddle(around 100 dollars and worth every penny) and he gave me some crucial pointers! with any luck i should be able to beat Jin soon(or after about 5 years of hard practice.) We went back to the community center today and got to watch the ping pong players practice! There was about ten players there spread over the three players. Everyone was sweating, and quite into it! I was very impressed by their skill, and obviously the worst player there! Watch for videos soon! Some of the players there looked to be around 70 years old as they have an older division in the local community games. I realized what a great sport it was and am very excited to get better. i also realized how good of a sport it is for older people as they can move around, sweat, and get great practice for their eye hand coordination. It is definitely impressive seeing someone that looks like papa playing ping pong on a level that would destroy anyone that any of us know in the US! So, Mom, Mordechai.... get practicing, watch some youtube videos on ping pong technique, and in a few years, you could definitely become some formidable opponents for Me and Jin!
Today Jin's mom just called us to tell us that she is going to be out until late playing games with her friends! So we are left alone to eat leftovers from last nights big dinner and try some of the awesome looking Ramen noodle type things we got at the local store!
ok, i'm off to eat! hope all is well out there!
peace
b
sorry for the slow updates to the blog, we have been busy kicking it with Jin's family and were having a hard time signing on our restricted blog from the family computer. Thanks to the help of some crafty techies(Jin's cousin), we are now back online(to the whole internet) and able to post on here.... and of course watch silly youtube phish videos(youtube is blocked in china.) We got to Chongqing on saturday and have spent the past few days hanging around Jin's small town in the mountains and visiting with family members. the first two days we spent at different peoples birthday parties. they were pretty big events, and nothing too much different than back in the states. Both days we ate at restaurants with around 25 people spread over 3 large round tables. We started with lunch, then people hang out, drink, play games and talk until dinner time, when we ate again at the same restaurant.
The meals were awesome, and we got to try lots of great dishes. Most of the food was entirely unkosher! the closest thing to being kosher in china is being Muslim. If you say you dont eat pork, people immedietely think you are Muslim! There is a large Muslim population here, and we even got to stay in the "muslim quarter" of Xi'an, which is basically the center of town. At the birthday meals we ate thinly sliced cold beef with hot peppers and scallions served cold, pork in a bread tasting rice mush that is really good(kinda tastes like breaded chicken,) lots of different vegetables including an eggplant dish, lettuce root, steamed cauliflower, we also had a fish soup, and a tofu soup with green onions and little pork pieces. Lunches are the main attraction here in China, and dinners are usually much more simple. Chinese people say that the reason americans are so fat is because of their habit of eating small lunches and large dinners.
Jin's family lives in a small town at the edge of the Yangtze River about 30 minutes from the center of Chongqing. Chongqing is a crazy city! There is soo much traffic, people everywhere, almost no parks or green spaces, and tons of tall buildings everywhere. It resembles NYC from afar, but is a little more rough around the edges up close. There is tons of upscale shopping, but also way more smaller shops and industrial areas than we have seen in other cities. There are few major attractions here, so it seems like the best thing to do is just walk around and soak in the vibe. her parents have just finished the decorating of a newer and much fancier apartment closer to the city, where we will most likely be staying the next few days. The apartment is absolutely gorgeous and has great views of the River, bridges, a nice hill with a temple on top and some rough industrial areas as well! Her grandparents are most likely going to move in to this new place though as her mom and dad prefer to live in the small town(Wang Jiang) where Jin's Fathers factory is and where she grew up. We had a great lunch at her Grandparents apartment in center city and ate some more awesome home cooked food. The highlights for me were more of the breaded tasting pork with rice, a chicken with peanuts(kinda like Kung Pao), more tasty cauliflower, a chicken soup, and some roasted duck! I have eaten more duck this month than my entire life combined, and it is really good(sorry U of O!)
Jin's family is really nice, and more or less what I expected. Her dad is one of the hardest workers i have ever met. He wakes up around 7am and goes to work, then comes home around 1230 to eat lunch. Me and Jin(mostly Jin) have been making lunch for her folks but usually that task is up to Jin's mom, who comes home from her job teaching drawing at a school to make lunch. Jin's mom works from around 8 to 12, then has a 2 hour lunch break, then goes back to work, coming home around 5. Her dad does work on his computer while he waits for lunch to be finished, and only stops for around 15 minutes to quicly eat his bowl of rice and the vegetables or meat that were prepared as well. He is very thin and obviously works really hard, and usually does not want to eat more than a small amount, explaining that that is enough..... However, Jin's mom usually disagrees and pushes him to eat more and more! After lunch, Jin's dad heads back to work and only comes home for another dinner break for half an hour(just enough time to eat) and then heads back to work until somewhere between 8 and 11 at night! It reminds me of what life must have been like for my great grandfather, or Papa, working hard to get the hardware store to be successful or working late nights on an upcoming plumbing job or building project. His hard work and the risks he has taken(leaving the local factory job that insured steady(yet low) pay and benefits) has obviously paid off, as they seem to be living a very nice life, and have given Jin the ability to pursue the things that interest her. I am in awe of her fathers hard work and have a great deal of respect for what he has achieved.
life here certainly reminds of a vision of the 50s or 60s in the states. Jin's mother is a huge fan of Mah Jong and cards and continuously sits around card tables with her friends talking and playing games. People smoke EVERYwhere and simply throw their cigarettes on the floor of restaurants, busses, or anywhere else that wont catch on fire(or maybe even will!)
Last night they had a big family party for the people that came to town for Jin's Grandfathers Funeral. There was no eulogy or speeches, simply a bunch of people hanging out in a cheerful mood and watching silly game shows from Taiwan. Her Grandfather passed away a month ago, so people dont seem to upset about it at the moment(from what I have seen.) We ate a huge dinner with the family spread out over 2 tables in Jin's families living room. I was sitting next to Jin's Uncle who started telling me about his Ping Pong playing. Sensing my interest, probably because i wouldn't stop asking him about it(with the help of Jin's translation), he took us to the local community center/library where they have 3 tables set up in a little ping pong gym. He explained that when he was growing up in the 60s, that ping pong was the national craze and everyone played.... I immedietely thought of forrest gump! I got to play a few games with his 685yuen paddle(around 100 dollars and worth every penny) and he gave me some crucial pointers! with any luck i should be able to beat Jin soon(or after about 5 years of hard practice.) We went back to the community center today and got to watch the ping pong players practice! There was about ten players there spread over the three players. Everyone was sweating, and quite into it! I was very impressed by their skill, and obviously the worst player there! Watch for videos soon! Some of the players there looked to be around 70 years old as they have an older division in the local community games. I realized what a great sport it was and am very excited to get better. i also realized how good of a sport it is for older people as they can move around, sweat, and get great practice for their eye hand coordination. It is definitely impressive seeing someone that looks like papa playing ping pong on a level that would destroy anyone that any of us know in the US! So, Mom, Mordechai.... get practicing, watch some youtube videos on ping pong technique, and in a few years, you could definitely become some formidable opponents for Me and Jin!
Today Jin's mom just called us to tell us that she is going to be out until late playing games with her friends! So we are left alone to eat leftovers from last nights big dinner and try some of the awesome looking Ramen noodle type things we got at the local store!
ok, i'm off to eat! hope all is well out there!
peace
b
Monday, March 15, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Ben becomes celebrity in China. Radom people try to take picture with him all the time.
Ben's favorite building--CCTV Tower
Ben's Women's Room Trip
Ben hangs out in Women's Room
The funest thing happened in Beijing was Ben went into the Women's Room and enjoyed it.
He was relaxing in it, and took his time to wash his hands, looked in the mirror.
By the time he got out, he still didnt realize he went in the women's.
After we told him, he complemented how much better the lady's room was.
Ashly went to the bathroom with Ben. When he came out, he asked me was Ben still in there.
In where?
Women's Room!
I couldnt stop laughing when i heard Ashly found it's lady's room when he saw a lady squat in there. Then he went staight out. But Ben said he just found a nicest stall, so he didn't pay attention what did Ashly say or do.
We waited for a while until we saw Ben washing his hands in there, and looked himself in the mirror before he come out.
He was relaxing in it, and took his time to wash his hands, looked in the mirror.
By the time he got out, he still didnt realize he went in the women's.
After we told him, he complemented how much better the lady's room was.
Ashly went to the bathroom with Ben. When he came out, he asked me was Ben still in there.
In where?
Women's Room!
I couldnt stop laughing when i heard Ashly found it's lady's room when he saw a lady squat in there. Then he went staight out. But Ben said he just found a nicest stall, so he didn't pay attention what did Ashly say or do.
We waited for a while until we saw Ben washing his hands in there, and looked himself in the mirror before he come out.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
old as the sands of time
ok! it's my birthday(ben), and me and jin are leaving xi'an and heading to hua shan. it is one of the five sacred mountains in the taosist religion and looks amazing! when viewed from one angle, the mountain resembles a lotus flower, with 5 peaks pointing in different directions. check out pictures online, and ignore the insane pictures of boards bolted to the side of a cliff, i am definitely not climbing up that way(there is an easy way with stairs!)ok, we are off to catch the bus! love you all!
ben
Jin is loving her pomello(sp? its a giant citrus) right now! she says hi!
ben
Jin is loving her pomello(sp? its a giant citrus) right now! she says hi!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
crisis averted!
ok, the last post was nearly lost after the internet froze halfway through my sentence. i was trying to talk about 2 different species of trees that were mated in to one tree. hundreds of years old, and at entrance to the garden, these were known as the "lovers trees", soo cool! anways, i almost just freaked out about nearly losing the entire last post! but luckily it reappered from nowhere, and i was able to post it! ok, i'm off to bed..... Hope all is well back in the states! peace and love to all!
ben
ben
more, more, more
Yo!
i'm back! this is ben, once again.
after my initial happiness at being able to access our blog, i am now going to fill in a bit of the goings on here in China.
Beijing was awesome! So clean, new, safe feeling... a big, interesting city, albeit a bit hectic. We saw a lot of great sites, and successfully secured our visas to Laos, but are still without visas for Vietnam(not cool.) Some of the highlights....
The birds nest and water cube. We arrived around 5pm while it was still light out. The birds nest was awesome, but still just another large stadium. The water cube is actually quite underwhelmind during daylight hours. The walk up to the stadiums is really, really long and very very cold! As the sun set, the lights turned on and the nest turned a bright red and yellow color from within, very cool! we got tons of cool pictures, and were able to walk about halfway around the stadium. it is the one place in beijing where I was actually mobbed by people trying to sell me crap... i was shocked that i made it that long. the sun went down, and the water cube got more and more amazing. the color, a dark, dull grey in the day, turned to a bright beautiful blue at night... really cool! I took a million pictures, and will try to post some soon. i loved the scene, but was about to get frostbite. after forcing jin to take hundreds of pictures of me, and asking locals to take even more pictures of us, i started to feel like my vital organs were going in to hibernation, so sadly, we left.... nonetheless, very cool!
lama temple.... Jin's super nice friend Jeffrey took me, her, and our new friend ashley(a guy from london now living in japan) on a guided tour of the temple. It was really, really cool, and we got to see a lot of amazing statues of buddha. Jeffrey, who used to be a tour guide there, did a great job of showing us around and we definitely enjoyed it. the highlight for me, by far, was the 28m high buddha made out of a single tree(supposedly.) no pictures were allowed inside, so please google it, it was awesome. the buddha was inside its own special building, which was built around it! My first giant buddha! I wont forget it.
the temple of heaven. awesome! the building, a round multi tiered pagoda like structure was really cool. it was built in the 1400s, then destroyed in a fire and completely rebuilt about 100 years ago. the entire building, over 100 feet high was built without a single nail, screw, etc. the buildings were cool, but the highlight was the park and the overall scene of all the people hanging out. The people of beijing(and i suppose china in general) go outside to the parks and have a community spirit that is entirely absent in the US. There were literally hundreds, maybe thousands of people hanging out in the sprawling park. Some of the activities going on included, karaoke, people giving lectures/speeches, group singing, bands practicing, people playing board games, people playing hackey sack, tons of people slow dancing to music, people practicing english, and other people practicing their caligraphy with homemade brushes on the stone walkways with water(a sort of meditation.) As i walked through the throngs of people, i heard a guy yell towards me "financial crisis." i looked over and saw an older man and his grandson(i'm guessing.) he used me as a chance to practice the random english words he had picked up. he explained to me and jin the importance of continuing your education and that he was always trying to learn new things, even in his old age. his grandson, who was under ten, dutifully practiced his caligraphy on the ground using a homemade stick with a foam pointy tip, cut out by hand and attached to the stick with a string tied around it. the puffy stick, dipped in a yogurt container with water in it, was his pen for practicing his handwriting on the ground. The child would practice his chinese characters, while the grandfather talked to us. the grandfather, speaking to us about all sorts of topics, mostly focusing on the value of continuously learning, would write english words on the ground, using me as his momentary english teacher. he showed us an instrument that looked like an ostrich egg, but was made out of clay. the egg shaped object had a hole in the top and other holes scattered around it and was played like a flute. he played a traditional chinese folk song for us, and then moved on to "jingle bells!" he was so cute, and was a lot of fun to talk to!
the forbidden city.... just like the pictures. sooo big, and containing over 8000 different rooms! very interesting to see how the emperor lived and fascinating to imagine such a large and amazing space that was completely private and hidden from everyone but a few for such a long time! one of the highlights for me were definitely the museum of clocks, most of which were given to the emperor by english merchants doing business in china around 2 to 300 years ago. I imagine that each of the 100 to 200 amazing and totally unique timepieces was each worth well over 100k dollars(at least according to antiques roadshow!) i have never seen so many amazing old clocks in one place, all of which were super extravagant. i also really loved the gardens. the "grotesque" rock gardens, and the amazing twisting pine trees, were amazing. also, there were a couple of trees that were mat
i'm back! this is ben, once again.
after my initial happiness at being able to access our blog, i am now going to fill in a bit of the goings on here in China.
Beijing was awesome! So clean, new, safe feeling... a big, interesting city, albeit a bit hectic. We saw a lot of great sites, and successfully secured our visas to Laos, but are still without visas for Vietnam(not cool.) Some of the highlights....
The birds nest and water cube. We arrived around 5pm while it was still light out. The birds nest was awesome, but still just another large stadium. The water cube is actually quite underwhelmind during daylight hours. The walk up to the stadiums is really, really long and very very cold! As the sun set, the lights turned on and the nest turned a bright red and yellow color from within, very cool! we got tons of cool pictures, and were able to walk about halfway around the stadium. it is the one place in beijing where I was actually mobbed by people trying to sell me crap... i was shocked that i made it that long. the sun went down, and the water cube got more and more amazing. the color, a dark, dull grey in the day, turned to a bright beautiful blue at night... really cool! I took a million pictures, and will try to post some soon. i loved the scene, but was about to get frostbite. after forcing jin to take hundreds of pictures of me, and asking locals to take even more pictures of us, i started to feel like my vital organs were going in to hibernation, so sadly, we left.... nonetheless, very cool!
lama temple.... Jin's super nice friend Jeffrey took me, her, and our new friend ashley(a guy from london now living in japan) on a guided tour of the temple. It was really, really cool, and we got to see a lot of amazing statues of buddha. Jeffrey, who used to be a tour guide there, did a great job of showing us around and we definitely enjoyed it. the highlight for me, by far, was the 28m high buddha made out of a single tree(supposedly.) no pictures were allowed inside, so please google it, it was awesome. the buddha was inside its own special building, which was built around it! My first giant buddha! I wont forget it.
the temple of heaven. awesome! the building, a round multi tiered pagoda like structure was really cool. it was built in the 1400s, then destroyed in a fire and completely rebuilt about 100 years ago. the entire building, over 100 feet high was built without a single nail, screw, etc. the buildings were cool, but the highlight was the park and the overall scene of all the people hanging out. The people of beijing(and i suppose china in general) go outside to the parks and have a community spirit that is entirely absent in the US. There were literally hundreds, maybe thousands of people hanging out in the sprawling park. Some of the activities going on included, karaoke, people giving lectures/speeches, group singing, bands practicing, people playing board games, people playing hackey sack, tons of people slow dancing to music, people practicing english, and other people practicing their caligraphy with homemade brushes on the stone walkways with water(a sort of meditation.) As i walked through the throngs of people, i heard a guy yell towards me "financial crisis." i looked over and saw an older man and his grandson(i'm guessing.) he used me as a chance to practice the random english words he had picked up. he explained to me and jin the importance of continuing your education and that he was always trying to learn new things, even in his old age. his grandson, who was under ten, dutifully practiced his caligraphy on the ground using a homemade stick with a foam pointy tip, cut out by hand and attached to the stick with a string tied around it. the puffy stick, dipped in a yogurt container with water in it, was his pen for practicing his handwriting on the ground. The child would practice his chinese characters, while the grandfather talked to us. the grandfather, speaking to us about all sorts of topics, mostly focusing on the value of continuously learning, would write english words on the ground, using me as his momentary english teacher. he showed us an instrument that looked like an ostrich egg, but was made out of clay. the egg shaped object had a hole in the top and other holes scattered around it and was played like a flute. he played a traditional chinese folk song for us, and then moved on to "jingle bells!" he was so cute, and was a lot of fun to talk to!
the forbidden city.... just like the pictures. sooo big, and containing over 8000 different rooms! very interesting to see how the emperor lived and fascinating to imagine such a large and amazing space that was completely private and hidden from everyone but a few for such a long time! one of the highlights for me were definitely the museum of clocks, most of which were given to the emperor by english merchants doing business in china around 2 to 300 years ago. I imagine that each of the 100 to 200 amazing and totally unique timepieces was each worth well over 100k dollars(at least according to antiques roadshow!) i have never seen so many amazing old clocks in one place, all of which were super extravagant. i also really loved the gardens. the "grotesque" rock gardens, and the amazing twisting pine trees, were amazing. also, there were a couple of trees that were mat
breaking down the wall!
Hey! this is ben!
we made it to Xi'an! Our hostel helped us find a website that allows us to (finally) login to our blog and update you all(anyone?) on what's going on here.... this is it....
XXXXX.org (removed to protect the innocent)is your one stop source for accessing websites that are banned. School or workplace banned your favourite website? You need not worry, XXXXX.org is here to solve precisely that! We encode the website URLs you are accessing so you are getting to them through our server, meaning that you can access sites that would otherwise be banned! To use XXXXX, simply:
Enter the URL of the website you wish to access in the URL box below
Click Browse!
Enjoy a website that you'd otherwise be banned from!
Back to the post! how about that! i'm so excited to finally break through and reach out to the throngs of followers out there! plus i must admit a slight thrill at being mischevious!
We have left Beijing, and are now in Xi'an. We spent last night(weds night)on the train on a "hard bed." it was actually quite comfortable and way, way better than a normal seat. Me and Jin got beds in seperate cabins, but with Jin's kindness, and her ability to shmooze the locals(in chinese of course) we switched with a friendly guy and had middle beds(of 3 stacked bunks) opposite one another. I was a little slow, as usual, so we had to run from the subway, to the city bus, to the station and made it to the train just in the nick of time. I was even able to stop at the train station and get some rice, with a side of tomato and eggs, and another side of pork and seaweed..... all for 8 yuan($1.15 US....actually not that cheap for here.)
the train was nice, and i even got to read a couple chapters of my book before passing out. Jin woke me up this morning as we approached Xi'an and I was able to watch a little bit of the Chinese countryside pass us by outside before arriving in the city this morning. The countryside of China is much different from the city of Beijing. While Beijing appears to be rather similar to a US city, the countryside definitely seems closer to that of South America. It is beautiful and lots of farmland, but not nearly as developed as the US.... kinda cool! and a great change of pace from the cosmpolitan vibe of Beijing!
Ok, I'm off to the room for a minute..... more updates to come!
we made it to Xi'an! Our hostel helped us find a website that allows us to (finally) login to our blog and update you all(anyone?) on what's going on here.... this is it....
XXXXX.org (removed to protect the innocent)is your one stop source for accessing websites that are banned. School or workplace banned your favourite website? You need not worry, XXXXX.org is here to solve precisely that! We encode the website URLs you are accessing so you are getting to them through our server, meaning that you can access sites that would otherwise be banned! To use XXXXX, simply:
Enter the URL of the website you wish to access in the URL box below
Click Browse!
Enjoy a website that you'd otherwise be banned from!
Back to the post! how about that! i'm so excited to finally break through and reach out to the throngs of followers out there! plus i must admit a slight thrill at being mischevious!
We have left Beijing, and are now in Xi'an. We spent last night(weds night)on the train on a "hard bed." it was actually quite comfortable and way, way better than a normal seat. Me and Jin got beds in seperate cabins, but with Jin's kindness, and her ability to shmooze the locals(in chinese of course) we switched with a friendly guy and had middle beds(of 3 stacked bunks) opposite one another. I was a little slow, as usual, so we had to run from the subway, to the city bus, to the station and made it to the train just in the nick of time. I was even able to stop at the train station and get some rice, with a side of tomato and eggs, and another side of pork and seaweed..... all for 8 yuan($1.15 US....actually not that cheap for here.)
the train was nice, and i even got to read a couple chapters of my book before passing out. Jin woke me up this morning as we approached Xi'an and I was able to watch a little bit of the Chinese countryside pass us by outside before arriving in the city this morning. The countryside of China is much different from the city of Beijing. While Beijing appears to be rather similar to a US city, the countryside definitely seems closer to that of South America. It is beautiful and lots of farmland, but not nearly as developed as the US.... kinda cool! and a great change of pace from the cosmpolitan vibe of Beijing!
Ok, I'm off to the room for a minute..... more updates to come!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Day 2 or 3 in Beijing
Hi Folks, Here is a post from Ben to me -- his Mom -- saying that they are not able to log onto their blog site....so I am forwarding his letter, as requested. All references to "you" refer to "me." Enjoy the story...Lynne
me and jin had another fun day in beijing. we woke up early and went to this local antique market. the market was huge, and had so many cool old books, communist posters, tons of old jade, quartz and calcite carvings, snuff jars, and all kinds of cool chinese antiques, etc. it was really cool, and you would have loved it. after that, we went to the temple of heaven park. it is a temple built in the 15th Century for the emperor to offer prayers for a good harvest. the temple is amazing. it is over 100 feet tall and wide, and has 4 giant columns. the entire thing is built with no nails, screws or anything, just wood. the park is really nice too. there are a bunch of really old awesome looking juniper trees that are at least 500 years old there. the park is filled with people playing cards together, singing karaoke outside, hackeysack, dancing together to traditional music, and all kinds of other stuff. everyone just goes to the park, hundreds of people and hang out together. this country is amazing, it is very community oriented and everyone loves to go outside and do things together.... completely different from america. all the retired people go to the park early and hang out together, just talk, study, play games, dance, whatever they enjoy doing.... you would love it.... except for the plethora of pork, which is simply referred to as "meat." we have been eating streetfood and going to locals only restaurants, which would be impossible without jin. almost no one speaks english, and the menus are entirely in chinese, no english anywhere. if it wasnt for jin, i wouldnt have the slightest idea about anything, and would end up paying triple just for the luxury of having a menu in english. the other people in our hostel were excited at getting meals for 3 dollars. when we told them we had been eating fried rice, lo mein and whatever else we wanted for 75 cents a dish, they were super jealous! it is really, really cold here, about 35 degrees and windy.... not cool! Jin is taking great care of me, and we are having lots of fun together. everyone is really nice, our hostel is full of cool people from all over the world, and we have made some friends in our room. everyone really likes beijing, and it still feels basically just like the US. you would be surprised by how similar it is, the busses are nice, the subway is awesome, the streets are clean, nice apt buildings, luxury everywhere, and generally just not all that crazy, although i'm sure that will change once we leave beijing. we went to the bird's nest and water cube last night, home of the olympics. it was really, really cool, and really neat to see all the famous buildings from the olympics up close and in person, albeit freezing cold with the wind blowing really hard!!!!!
our blog is inaccessible anywhere, and perhaps anywhere outside of HK.... perhaps you could just cut and paste my emails to you and post them on our blog(from the next line up)... otherwise i'm afraid i wont have any friends by the time i get home!
me and jin had another fun day in beijing. we woke up early and went to this local antique market. the market was huge, and had so many cool old books, communist posters, tons of old jade, quartz and calcite carvings, snuff jars, and all kinds of cool chinese antiques, etc. it was really cool, and you would have loved it. after that, we went to the temple of heaven park. it is a temple built in the 15th Century for the emperor to offer prayers for a good harvest. the temple is amazing. it is over 100 feet tall and wide, and has 4 giant columns. the entire thing is built with no nails, screws or anything, just wood. the park is really nice too. there are a bunch of really old awesome looking juniper trees that are at least 500 years old there. the park is filled with people playing cards together, singing karaoke outside, hackeysack, dancing together to traditional music, and all kinds of other stuff. everyone just goes to the park, hundreds of people and hang out together. this country is amazing, it is very community oriented and everyone loves to go outside and do things together.... completely different from america. all the retired people go to the park early and hang out together, just talk, study, play games, dance, whatever they enjoy doing.... you would love it.... except for the plethora of pork, which is simply referred to as "meat." we have been eating streetfood and going to locals only restaurants, which would be impossible without jin. almost no one speaks english, and the menus are entirely in chinese, no english anywhere. if it wasnt for jin, i wouldnt have the slightest idea about anything, and would end up paying triple just for the luxury of having a menu in english. the other people in our hostel were excited at getting meals for 3 dollars. when we told them we had been eating fried rice, lo mein and whatever else we wanted for 75 cents a dish, they were super jealous! it is really, really cold here, about 35 degrees and windy.... not cool! Jin is taking great care of me, and we are having lots of fun together. everyone is really nice, our hostel is full of cool people from all over the world, and we have made some friends in our room. everyone really likes beijing, and it still feels basically just like the US. you would be surprised by how similar it is, the busses are nice, the subway is awesome, the streets are clean, nice apt buildings, luxury everywhere, and generally just not all that crazy, although i'm sure that will change once we leave beijing. we went to the bird's nest and water cube last night, home of the olympics. it was really, really cool, and really neat to see all the famous buildings from the olympics up close and in person, albeit freezing cold with the wind blowing really hard!!!!!
our blog is inaccessible anywhere, and perhaps anywhere outside of HK.... perhaps you could just cut and paste my emails to you and post them on our blog(from the next line up)... otherwise i'm afraid i wont have any friends by the time i get home!
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