The Purple Mountain Excursion!

Monday October 1st - We climbed Purple Mountain (for the first time - I am guessing there will be more times).


We were invited by a student in my English Majors class. He told me that he and some of his friends were climbing Purple Mountain and wanted Scott and I to join. Purple Mountain is a large "hill" behind the school and many students have talked about climbing it all the time. We've been asked multiple times if we'd gone yet, so when Eddie asked I said sure.

During one of our weekend classes that we had to teach last weekend I mentioned to some of my PhD students that we were climbing Purple Mountain on Monday so they wondered if they could join. I figured why not and before I could get it out one of the guys said, "the more the merrier!" I also invited Maia, she teaches 1st graders so they didn't invite her to do anything. She needed student friends.

So, Scott, Maia and I showed up at 8am in front on teaching building 5 to meet what I thought would be us, 2 PhD students and Eddie and a couple friends. This is what showed up:

It came to over 20 people who began the trip from the school. I am pretty sure we picked up people on the hill too. Most of the time I had no idea who was in our group.

So we began the trek - and it was hard. You would think that since we are at a much lower elevation and its a small "mountain" it'd be no problem. Well, you would be wrong. There were stairs all the way up, straight up. No switchbacks or dirt paths here. Paved staircases all the way to the top with a few landings. When I was getting really worn out I would see a landing and think "Finally! We're so close!" only to get there and see more stairs. It was a hard trek. Most of the Chinese students seemed to have no problem, but they were sweet and waited for us. It got real bad at one point where I thought I was going to be sick, but it passed. After a couple hours of this uphill battle - we really did arrive at the top.

Look at those stairs!

There were many things to see at the top. First thing we did was climb a little bit higher (no stairs this top) to the actual tallest point. Up here many people were suprised to see foreigners so we got to talk to many new people. One couple encouraged their daughter to talk to us and took many pictures with us. Many other people wanted pictures and to say hi. As we were coming down Eddie said to me, "they all like you very much!"

Maia and I with Jack (see how sweaty he is? it was hot!), little Jenny (the girl whose parents continued to encourage her to speak to us), and another man

There was a park we paid to get into and have some lunch. There was a Large Buddha, one of the largest in the area (how they ever got it up there is a mystery to me). Also, a dragon statue climbing up the hill. There was a park for kids, lots of cabins, other statues and structures all over the place. Peacocks were kept in a large cage near the park where we ate lunch. We walked to a cave where a famous Chinese man named Liu Ji hid from his enemies who were trying to have him murdered and lived there for over a year during the Ming Dynasty.

We were really excited to see Buddha.

We hiked over to the Observatory, which is on another "peak" of the "mountain." I was ready to head down anytime, but there was so much the students wanted us to see. It was 45 yuan to get into the Observatory so we decided to save it for another time.

So we began to head down. Much to our surprise, there was a road on this side of the mountain. There was the Observatory and a very nice restuarant here so there were many cars. We started walking down the road and I thought, "well this will be a nice direct way down." I am always so wrong. Jack, good 'ol Jack, wanted to show us his shortcuts. The first was going down a very steep hill in a bamboo forested area. You had to grip the bamboo to keep from falling down the hill, so thats what we did. I really felt this in my arms the next morning.

After the bamboo, which really was a quick and not too terrible way down, I thought "well if all the shortcuts are like that we'll be down in no time." Once again, I am so far off. This time we took a short that was sometimes not as steep, but there were no bamboo trees. I fell twice (and Scott also fell twice) going down this steep, dirt trail. Part of the way down, after we had lost sight of the road long ago, we came to a little fork in the trails and Jack said,"I'm not sure which is the way." So we were lost.

Eventually we found the right trail and made it down safely and back to the streets. But, once we found ourselves down the hill, we found ourselves short of people. Eddie, the student who had invited us in the first place, was among the missing. They joined us about 10 minutes later, after some frantic phone calls and searching.

We had returned to civilization! The trip really was a great time, but it made us realize that we really need to get into shape before we attempt that again.

Next up will be stories from Ningbo! We spent a couple days there during this break. We're back to classes now and things are going well. :)

Wonderful Weekend

Hello Everyone!

Things are going well here. We are currently on holiday from school. It is the 58th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China so everyone has the week off! We did teach this weekend, but it was easy. We just showed a movie. Anyway - onto the stories~

On Friday the 28th we had an easy day, just one morning class. Friday began well. It was a cloudy day and the temperature was perfect! It was probably around 75 degrees or so and it was amazing. It has been so hot and humid here and that day was like being home. All of our students thought it was too cold and wore jackets to class. Scott and I were in short sleeves. It was great.

That night we went to an Orchestra Concert held by the school. It was very interesting because it was a show for the Freshman. The freshman had just finished their month-long compulsory military training and this was in celebration of that. All freshman at Universities in China are required to complete this military training. They would march around campus and stand at attention on the fields and such. It was very interesting to watch. Now, after the holiday, they will actually start classes. The concert itself was fantastic. Really wonderful music.

On Sunday we had to teach another class in the morning, but it went really well. Scott played a movie in his classroom and most of my class went there but 4 guys stayed in my class. We just sat around and talked for over an hour and a half (the duration of the class). It was so interesting to talk to these guys.

One man, english name is Jack, is in his 30s and has a 14 year old daughter and a two year old son. He is from Southern China and he said that in his area they don't have to abide by the family planning rules. There are also many Muslims in his area and if he had the opportunity to chose a religion he would follow Islam. He lives at the school and his wife is 29 hours away by train.

Another man is probably in his later 20s. He is Jack's roommate and his name is Carmen. He is also married and has only been so since August 16th of this year. His wife is in Hunan Province which is about 14 hours from here by train. The next time he will see her is January 1st when she comes to visit him for the winter holiday.

Another man is probably in his mid to late 40s. His english name is Thomas. He told us that he got married because his parents encouraged him to. When he was 30 his parents told him he was getting too old and needed to get married. He made it clear that it was his choice but he wanted to be obdient to his parents. His wife is also in his hometown but I am not sure how far away it is. He also has a son. He was one of three children and being the oldest he had to be married before the other two could be married, so that was another factor in his being married.

It was just incredible to listen to these guys talk about their lives and their ideas about the world and about China. As most of you know, I could spend the rest of my life being a social historian and just collecting people's stories about their lives. It was fascinating. Mostly they asked each other questions about their lives and wives and I was just an observer. I wasn't sure what questions would be considered rude so I mostly spoke about life in the US and other not so personal topics.

After classes we were invited to a reception held by the government of Jiangsu Province. It was a really nice luncheon at a hotel. The governor of Jiangsu Province was there (like the governor of Colorado) and the Mayor of Nanjing amongst other important people. This is a picture of the stage:

It was an interesting place. The food was very good and some of the entertainment was good as well, and some was, interesting. If I had not been wearing jeans I would have tried to go up and intorduce myself to the Mayor of Nanjing. I have never been to any dinner or anything with the governor of Colorado or the Mayor of Denver, but I come to China and they invite me over in my first month here! It was really a reception to celebrate the holiday but also welcome and thank all the foreign teachers in the province. I saw a few people I knew and made some new friends!

I could continue to ramble but I'll halt for now. Monday we climbed Purple Mountain and that is a long story all in itself. I will save that for another post, and when I can get pictures from it!

:)