Tag Archives: New York

Yuejiang Pagoda, Lions Gate Temple

Posted on by
3

FIELD TRIP…..  I took my senior IB students to the Yuejiang Tower or Lions Gate Temple for an art outing.  We had a lovely afternoon.  The focus was on photographing patterns, architecture, people, light and shadows.  Mike, Anna and Ophelia accompanied me along with the economics teacher, Michael. When we got to the steps to climb the hill to the pagoda  Michael took a leave (something about nap-time) and it was just me and the students.  The temple was part of a Buddhist monestary built in 400AD.  Much was destroyed, rebuilt and opened to the public in 2001.   Being new, there are no Buddhist monks to be seen.  More of a tourist attraction, it still represents the Ming Dynasty when Zheng He sailed to the Atlantic. It includes complex architecture lines in traditional Chinese style.  Housed inside is information such as ship building, scientific sailing, how to conquer the ocean, peaceful diplomacy, good-neighborly relationships, transmission of civilization, equal trading and culture exchanges as well as local customs and practices in western countries. (This last sentence I copied from a tourist guide!)  Since I can’t read the Chinese characters I enjoy the museum visually.

This tower can be seen from my office window and I look at it daily.  It is fun to be standing on the top balcony and see my building for a change.  I can see the Yangtze river bridge, the vast array of apartment building, old and new, hi rise and small old hutongs.  It is miles and miles of building, so unbelievable, bigger than New York City, so awe inspiring.

I was counted in the Chinese census

Posted on by
Reply

The amount of people in China, is just overwhelming.  Every bit of land is covered with gardens, fruit trees, wheat, canals taking water to rice, sky high apartments or maybe 4-story homes.  Traveling I’ve noticed the massive semi-trucks are much longer and higher than American semi’s.  Passing trucks of rabbits and pigs stacked on top of each other, it is amazing to see the amount of food going down the road.

Tour boat riding seats many and even had a squatter toilet!  No thanks!

One observance is picture taking.  The Chinese take pictures of each other and love to pose.  They love their children.  Some have funny poses!  Isn’t it fun to take pictures of people acting up?  I have more pictures of me now, because my new Chinese friends, want to take pictures of me using my camera.

Speaking of population, I was counted in the Chinese census.  They actually came by three different nights!  I think I was an anomaly with four of them on the last night to double or triple check!  So we have over 8 million in Nanjing– that is just a guess, more than New York City.  Probably when it is all said and done, much larger than 8 mil!

What’s funny — I am counted twice on this planet, here and in the America census last year.

Chinese laundry

Posted on by
2

October 6, 2010

Looking out the living room window I see a wedding at the 5-star hotel across the street.  It looks like a magnificent event with two or did I see three chefs?  Wish I had a pair of binoculars so I could see what’s happening up close.  Remember the TV show “Friends” and how they always looked out of their New York apartment window and would see the naked guy in the apartment across?  I think I could do that here, looking into thousands of apartment windows and seeing what’s happening.  Or they could be looking at the blonde western girl running around in her apartment in a purple night gown!  Ha which is funnier?  Ok back to the wedding, I hear something in Chinese from loud speakers, are they married yet?  What fun, maybe there will be a firecracker event to follow?  Maybe I can take some photographs.  Hey Alex, I need some help with night exposures and fire crackers.  I remember your wonderful photos last year in HL art class.  Gee I wish you were here to help me with my photography.  This is the fourth wedding party I have seen around the city in the last few days.  I was told it is good luck and good fortune to marry during the week of the National Holiday (remember this is China’s 4th of July!  Well sort of, I don’t they are celebrating independence from Britain.  Maybe it is just a happy week to be Chinese.  I’m happy to be in China and to be living the oriental lifestyle.  Shoot some firecrackers, would you!

Speaking of culture, Patti has been curious about the laundry issue in China, so I am devoting this blog to doing Chinese Laundry.  My little washer is nice, except it is written in Chinese, so I had it deciphered onto a green post-it.  (By the way “post-its” doesn’t exist here; I brought these from the states!)  My laundry detergent smells great and we all know how I like good smells.  The washer is only connected to cold water and I was told to do a warm wash, you boil water and pour it in.  Ok I did that for towels, seems to work.  Then after it is “dry”, that’s what the Chinese say, actually it is the “spin cycle” in America.  It is now ready for the dryer.  Don’t have dryers in China, ok they do but not in my apartment.  I actually haven’t seen one here, but know they do exist.  Where, I don’t know?  So in my case it is a walk upstairs to my master bedroom, open the sliding door and out onto the balcony.  This is where I have a clothes line pulley system.  You turn the lever and down comes one line which I bought a couple little hanger thingies to hang unmentionables on.  Then when this line is full you move the handle to the other lever and roll this pile up in the air and the other line rolls down.  I know what a wooden clothespin is, do you?  I actually bought some at the Suguo!  Cheap ones at that, cause they sprang apart, and I have bits and pieces in my nightstand drawer.  My balcony faces the south, which is good luck.  This side gets all the sun so clothes dry faster.  I like the balcony it is enclosed with glass panels which move and let you open them up and get a nice breeze.  Hanging clothes reminds me of my childhood in Plano when my mom did laundry.  She hung it out on the clothes line and the sheets and towels would get so stiff.  I remember the wind blowing them and me having to hang and bring them in.  I am reminded of hanging Ruth Ann’s diapers one after another.  Mom will recall when I was three I had a “blankie”, she would wash it for me and I would go hold onto it as it hung to dry.  It had a satin border and I recollect how cool it was on my face when I was warm.  Now that is a long time ago, and I still like blankets, as I brought my down comforter in the satin coverlet with me to China.  Still like that cool feeling when it is hot.  Since I don’t have anyone to hang onto, this is a good replacement, soft, cuddly and no emotional attachment.

8 Million and the “Joker”

Posted on by
Reply

October 5, 2010

I was trying to figure out my metal rice box container on rollers located under my kitchen cabinet when Michael called and said meet him at S.I.T (Sculpting in Time) for lunch.  Many of the taxi drivers don’t know where this ex-pat place is so I called Alice to get it said in Chinese.  The last time I had a driver drop me off, I ended up a couple blocks away and was lost.  There are no outstanding landmarks and every place begins to look the same, especially if you can’t read Chinese characters.   This time I was dropped off right in front, need to get Alice to write that out for me in Chinese.  I met up with Michael and he introduced me to Derrick and Annette, a married couple from England.  Derrick and Michael taught together last year.  They have an electric bike to buzz around in and said their drive is 25 minutes from their new place in the “burbs!”  A long way, but they have more western furnishings, like a “UK bouncy” bed and dryer!  The population of the city was a major discussion.  I read it was 2.8 million.  The men said hardly, it was more like 8 million.  In five years it has doubled as people want to be closer to the conveniences of the city and better jobs.  No wonder I think it is so huge, it’s like New York.  Alice and Sawyer joined up for lunch.  Then the three of us took off walking and searching for light bulbs.  We actually found a vendor on the street that had what I needed, so I bought three.  This business of being able to find specialty items in specific places persuades me to buy extra.  I ask for a business card, so I can find his place again.  My wallet if bulging with business cards after living here a month and a half.

Sawyer wants to watch movies so we head back to my place.  He invites a movie editor friend visiting from Beijing.  His name is “Joker” like in the Batman movie.  What is it with strange American names, Chinese people give themselves?  He brought an old Michael Douglas movie, “The Game.”  Joker says it is one of his favorites.  It is an old 90’s movie and edgy.  I wasn’t too excited about the plot.  Afterwards we had a discussion about what Americans watch on TV.  He has a preconceived notion Americans watch old movies, like black and whites from the 40’s up to the 80’s!  He likes “Bonnie and Clyde” and watches it repeatedly.  I am thinking Americans are more interested in new flicks, not old stuff like on the Turner network.   The discussion went to political land accessions of China, such as Taiwan, North Korea and Tibet.  Are these separate countries or Chinese?  Would I be arrested if I wore a “Free Tibet” T-shirt?  Sawyer said, nah, not that many people can read English and would just pass me by on the street!  Now if I was in Tiananmen Square that might be different.  Ok no protesting there!  The conversation over democracy whiffs in the air and we decide China is becoming democratic and maybe the US is becoming socialist!  Are the countries flipping beliefs? Somehow the conversation drifts to an in depth debate about ghosts.  We discuss “The Sixth Sense.’  Joker and I agree it is an intense movie.  He doesn’t believe in God or ghosts!  Oh my, I can debate this issue for hours.  He has no idea what metaphysics or theosophy is so we can’t get to in-depth. I am reminded he just like movies, which is why, he is a movie trailer editor.

I realize without my cell phone, internet or TV I spend much of my time in discussion with people.  I like being connected and not distracted.  I like the cultural education I am getting.