Here's one thing I learned about my brother and sister and company while traveling together: We each have a special skill.
Bryan's skill (which I haven't yet seen demonstrated) is hitting ducks in the head with rocks.
Sachi's skill is waking up before her alarm clock.
Stefan's skill is hanging from trees over steep precipices.
Emily's skill is forgetting to answer me when I e-mail her and ask her to remind me what her skill is.
My skill is going down stairs two at a time without holding the railing.
What's your skill?
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
GaoKao
It's time for GaoKao -- the "big exam" -- the national college entrance exam. Today and tomorrow, almost 10 million high school seniors will take the test in hopes of scoring well enough to go to college, especially one of the first-tier universities.
It is impossible to over-state the importance of this exam, which leads to such insanities as suicides, 12-hour school days, tricky cheating, and more. Scoring well is seen as a ticket to success; scoring poorly is one of the biggest failures of a young person's life. Some of my students arrive at university unable to even boil water because their parents did everything for them during high school to allow more time for studying for the exam. Other girls kept their hair short for years to devote those extra few minutes of hair care to studying. Some of my freshman students are 21 or 22 years old because they scored poorly the first time, took a couple years off to just study for the exam, and then tried again.
Students across China are taking the exam today and tomorrow. In this short article, danwei.org translates some of the essay questions from the exam.
It is impossible to over-state the importance of this exam, which leads to such insanities as suicides, 12-hour school days, tricky cheating, and more. Scoring well is seen as a ticket to success; scoring poorly is one of the biggest failures of a young person's life. Some of my students arrive at university unable to even boil water because their parents did everything for them during high school to allow more time for studying for the exam. Other girls kept their hair short for years to devote those extra few minutes of hair care to studying. Some of my freshman students are 21 or 22 years old because they scored poorly the first time, took a couple years off to just study for the exam, and then tried again.
Students across China are taking the exam today and tomorrow. In this short article, danwei.org translates some of the essay questions from the exam.
Cocky Confidence
In the last two months, I've experienced a little Chinese language burst. In a short time, I went from stumbling through short phrases to stumbling through short conversations. This makes a huge difference in quality of life in China. When I was traveling with my family, I was surprised at how often I could find some way to ask the question I was thinking of, and sometimes even understand the answer!
By the way, travel is great language practice. It takes you away from your comfortable routines and from the people who normally translate for you. Partly for this reason, I try to travel about once a month (if only to Beijing).
I returned from my recent travels feeling pretty confident with my blossoming Chineze skillz. True, I am still illiterate, can barely write my own name, and do most of my communication with some combination of the words "this," "that," "what," and "OK?" True, I often smile and nod when I have no idea what the person just said. (Example: A woman at the Great Wall asked me if I liked to smoke. I smiled and said yes.) But, nonetheless, I got cocky.
...for about a day. This week, my Chinese doesn't seem to be working for me at all. I bought sunglasses today and didn't catch even one full sentence that the salesgirl said in my 15 minutes in the store. In my Chinese lesson on Friday, my tutor would teach me a word only to have me forget it .3 seconds later. "We just, just studied this!" she kept saying in friendly exasperation.
So, while I'm thankful for my improving communiation skills, I think God may be teaching me a lesson about humility.
By the way, travel is great language practice. It takes you away from your comfortable routines and from the people who normally translate for you. Partly for this reason, I try to travel about once a month (if only to Beijing).
I returned from my recent travels feeling pretty confident with my blossoming Chineze skillz. True, I am still illiterate, can barely write my own name, and do most of my communication with some combination of the words "this," "that," "what," and "OK?" True, I often smile and nod when I have no idea what the person just said. (Example: A woman at the Great Wall asked me if I liked to smoke. I smiled and said yes.) But, nonetheless, I got cocky.
...for about a day. This week, my Chinese doesn't seem to be working for me at all. I bought sunglasses today and didn't catch even one full sentence that the salesgirl said in my 15 minutes in the store. In my Chinese lesson on Friday, my tutor would teach me a word only to have me forget it .3 seconds later. "We just, just studied this!" she kept saying in friendly exasperation.
So, while I'm thankful for my improving communiation skills, I think God may be teaching me a lesson about humility.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Death on the Road
In this post, I will describe our experience of coming upon a motorcycle-bus accident on the road from Lijiang to Qiaotou.
The drive was supposed to be 2.5 hours. We had been driving for about an hour and a half along the narrow mountain roads when we came upon the accident. We saw the vehicle in front of us slow down, and I caught a glimpse of a body on the road -- clearly dead, with blood and entrails everywhere and the motorcycle lying several feet away. The driver talked to a witness, who said a bus to Shangri-La somehow ran over the man and then just kept going.
There was no way around the body and traffic began backing up on both sides. The police came, but no one made any effort to clear the scene of the accident. Minutes and then hours began ticking by.
The man's wife was led up to the site, where the mangled body lay cruelly uncovered. When she saw it, she melted into the pavement and immediately started wailing and sobbing. Friends helped her away, although we heard her intermittent wails for a long time. Someone brought up a rooster and tied it to a rock by the side of the road.
Meanwhile, spectators from the long line of parked vehicles sauntered up to the site -- smoking, chatting, taking pictures, or squatting by the side of the road to wait. An American man who lives in Shangri-La walked up to see what was going on. He shook his head at the sad situation and noted that it could be 6 or 7 hours before the scene was cleaned up. "No one will touch the body until someone in authority comes around and makes them do it," he concluded.
We sat in the van and waited. I was a little shaken by the immediacy of the man's death and his wife's fresh grief exploding in front of us.
Three or four hours passed with no change, and we still had no idea when we could continue. Another tourist in our van talked to the driver and arranged transport for us on the other side. We had to skirt the accident site, so the driver walked us through the brush by the roadside to the top of a hill. Then we met up with the road again and walked 20 minutes. As we walked, our driver seemed to take a sort of macabre delight in relaying the gory details of the accident site to drivers waiting further down the road. A different van picked us up at the end of the stopped traffic and we continued on our way.
The drive was supposed to be 2.5 hours. We had been driving for about an hour and a half along the narrow mountain roads when we came upon the accident. We saw the vehicle in front of us slow down, and I caught a glimpse of a body on the road -- clearly dead, with blood and entrails everywhere and the motorcycle lying several feet away. The driver talked to a witness, who said a bus to Shangri-La somehow ran over the man and then just kept going.
There was no way around the body and traffic began backing up on both sides. The police came, but no one made any effort to clear the scene of the accident. Minutes and then hours began ticking by.
The man's wife was led up to the site, where the mangled body lay cruelly uncovered. When she saw it, she melted into the pavement and immediately started wailing and sobbing. Friends helped her away, although we heard her intermittent wails for a long time. Someone brought up a rooster and tied it to a rock by the side of the road.
Meanwhile, spectators from the long line of parked vehicles sauntered up to the site -- smoking, chatting, taking pictures, or squatting by the side of the road to wait. An American man who lives in Shangri-La walked up to see what was going on. He shook his head at the sad situation and noted that it could be 6 or 7 hours before the scene was cleaned up. "No one will touch the body until someone in authority comes around and makes them do it," he concluded.
We sat in the van and waited. I was a little shaken by the immediacy of the man's death and his wife's fresh grief exploding in front of us.
Three or four hours passed with no change, and we still had no idea when we could continue. Another tourist in our van talked to the driver and arranged transport for us on the other side. We had to skirt the accident site, so the driver walked us through the brush by the roadside to the top of a hill. Then we met up with the road again and walked 20 minutes. As we walked, our driver seemed to take a sort of macabre delight in relaying the gory details of the accident site to drivers waiting further down the road. A different van picked us up at the end of the stopped traffic and we continued on our way.
A Door for the Word
Our team recently listened to a John Piper message on Col. 4:2-4.
According to Piper, the passage lists two goals for prayer:
1) a door for the Word
2) the speaker's message
and three ways to pray:
1) steadfastly
2) alert and watchfully
3) thankfully
I confess I'm often 0/3 on those last ones -- lackadaisical instead of steadfast, forgetful instead of alert, apathetic instead of thankful. For those of you who remember China in your prayers, can I invite you to join me in trying to intercede more faithfully, watchfully, and thankfully?
According to Piper, the passage lists two goals for prayer:
1) a door for the Word
2) the speaker's message
and three ways to pray:
1) steadfastly
2) alert and watchfully
3) thankfully
I confess I'm often 0/3 on those last ones -- lackadaisical instead of steadfast, forgetful instead of alert, apathetic instead of thankful. For those of you who remember China in your prayers, can I invite you to join me in trying to intercede more faithfully, watchfully, and thankfully?
Friday, June 4, 2010
Tiger Leaping Gorge
While in southwest China, we decided to spend two days hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge. The Yangtze River runs through this deep canyon, and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain rises nearby. If you believe the legends, a tiger once leapt 25 meters across the river to escape a hunter. Guidebooks call Tiger Leaping Gorge one of the best hikes in China.
We began by taking a minibus from Lijiang to the trailhead at a town named Qiatou. We were delayed for several hours by a terrible accident on the road and finally arrived at Qiaotou around 4:30 to begin hiking.
We began our hike.
After an hour and a half, we arrived here, the Naxi Family Guesthouse, where we roomed for the night. There were hikers from Hong Kong, Germany, Canada, and China staying there that night.
Morning arrived and we had our breakfasts of eggs, tea, porridge, and pancakes. The next section was the hardest part of the hike, called 28 Bends. It's about an hour or two of uphill climbing, with lots of switchbacks. With only one day to adjust to the altitude, I was breathing hard.
28 Bends eventually ended and we got to walk along the side of the gorge with peaks all around and the river below. Local people raise corn and other crops in beautiful terraced fields, but everything was dry because of the drought. (We sometimes saw farmers with hoses in their fields, trying to rain some life into their anemic looking crops.)
We knew we wanted to spend 2 nights in the gorge, so we took our time hiking and ended the day at the Halfway Guesthouse.
Unfortunately, there was some bad magic in the food, and two of our group got really nauseated over the night. So the next morning found some of us (including me) watching the sun rise over some of the most stunning views in the gorge while others languished in bed.
Finally at noon we decided we better just start hiking, although it was rough going for the sick ones. It was another 2 hours (at our pace) to Tina's Guesthouse, where we arranged a ride back out of the gorge.
The ride home was a harrowing ride indeed. They are widening the lower road where you can drive back to Qiaotou. This meant maneuvering around bulldozers, workers, rock slides, and even explosions in addition to the oncoming traffic. Even the driver looked a little scared. (And the bumpiness did no good for the queasy kids in the back.)
Final assessment of Tiger Leaping Gorge: One of my favorite travel experiences ever. The hike is tiring but not too hard, especially if you go slow like we did. It hasn't (yet) been over developed, and there aren't too many tourists. Every inch of the hike is surrounded by beautiful views -- an awesome display of the Creator's handiwork.
We began by taking a minibus from Lijiang to the trailhead at a town named Qiatou. We were delayed for several hours by a terrible accident on the road and finally arrived at Qiaotou around 4:30 to begin hiking.
We began our hike.
After an hour and a half, we arrived here, the Naxi Family Guesthouse, where we roomed for the night. There were hikers from Hong Kong, Germany, Canada, and China staying there that night.
Morning arrived and we had our breakfasts of eggs, tea, porridge, and pancakes. The next section was the hardest part of the hike, called 28 Bends. It's about an hour or two of uphill climbing, with lots of switchbacks. With only one day to adjust to the altitude, I was breathing hard.
28 Bends eventually ended and we got to walk along the side of the gorge with peaks all around and the river below. Local people raise corn and other crops in beautiful terraced fields, but everything was dry because of the drought. (We sometimes saw farmers with hoses in their fields, trying to rain some life into their anemic looking crops.)
We knew we wanted to spend 2 nights in the gorge, so we took our time hiking and ended the day at the Halfway Guesthouse.
Sign on the Halfway House terrace. Check out those mountains!
Village surrounding Halfway Guesthouse
Unfortunately, there was some bad magic in the food, and two of our group got really nauseated over the night. So the next morning found some of us (including me) watching the sun rise over some of the most stunning views in the gorge while others languished in bed.
Guidebooks always praise the view from Halfway's toilets.
Finally at noon we decided we better just start hiking, although it was rough going for the sick ones. It was another 2 hours (at our pace) to Tina's Guesthouse, where we arranged a ride back out of the gorge.
The ride home was a harrowing ride indeed. They are widening the lower road where you can drive back to Qiaotou. This meant maneuvering around bulldozers, workers, rock slides, and even explosions in addition to the oncoming traffic. Even the driver looked a little scared. (And the bumpiness did no good for the queasy kids in the back.)
Final assessment of Tiger Leaping Gorge: One of my favorite travel experiences ever. The hike is tiring but not too hard, especially if you go slow like we did. It hasn't (yet) been over developed, and there aren't too many tourists. Every inch of the hike is surrounded by beautiful views -- an awesome display of the Creator's handiwork.
Family Vacation
The participants:
Bryan
Older brother
Lonely Planet China history expert
Sachi
Bryan's girlfriend
Trip audiologist
Emily
Younger sister
Baby whisperer
Stefan
Emily's boyfriend
Yak whisperer
Alison
Middle sister
China resident
The itinerary:
Hong Kong (but not Alison)
Southwest China: Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge
Qufu
Beijing
The result:
Good times had by all.
Post Edit: Look a little closer at the picture of Emily. You can see Bryan in the background playing Chinese chess with some of the locals in the East market. So really, that picture has everything: cute kid, friendly-but-overbearing mom, old dudes playing games on the street, curious crowd, and the foreigners loving every minute of it.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Metablogging
Dear Readers,
I've just been away from this blog for two weeks -- possibly a record in my almost one year of writing at Life in the Middle Kingdom. I was just traveling and hosting family, and then our Internet broke for a few days. But it's back. Hooray! I missed writing about my life here and knowing that you are sharing in my experiences.
I blog for three reasons:
Sincerely,
Alison
I've just been away from this blog for two weeks -- possibly a record in my almost one year of writing at Life in the Middle Kingdom. I was just traveling and hosting family, and then our Internet broke for a few days. But it's back. Hooray! I missed writing about my life here and knowing that you are sharing in my experiences.
I blog for three reasons:
- To keep in touch with friends, family, and supporters.
- To let you learn about China along with me, and perhaps build greater understanding and empathy for this wonderful nation. (In my opinion, the more people who care about and pray for China, the better.)
- Because I love to write.
Sincerely,
Alison
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