Travels in China

Since I wrote last, I have been doing some traveling around China. In March B and I went to Hong Kong and Macao so that he could attend a meeting with the other Fulbright grantees. Unfortunately for him, he had many boring meetings and networking events to attend (including meeting with the consul in her extremely fancy mansion on Victoria Peak: apparently it had a complete ballroom), but I was able to travel around Hong Kong and enjoy some of the sights.

We both really loved Hong Kong. It has many of the positive elements of China (great food, picturesque temples and pagodas, dense cityscapes full of people doing all sorts of interesting things) along with those of the West (cleanliness, lots of natural space, the rule of law). It is also probably the best place in the world for shopping: everything you could possibly want is available, and it's all cheaper than it would be in the US (or in China for many things). I very much enjoyed buying clothes there especially: in the US, I must always go to the petite section but in Hong Kong everything fit perfectly.

After Hong Kong, we traveled via hydrofoil to the island of Macao (or Aomen in Chinese), which used to be a colony of Portugal (until 1999). There is still a fairly strong Portuguese influence there in some ways: the food is a unique fusion of Chinese and Portuguese, the wine is cheap and good (something not true anywhere else in China), the architecture and churches are mostly Western, and the legal system is still in Portuguese (most signs are bilingual too). It was the main gateway into China for Western influence until the mid-nineteenth century, so it has an important and interesting history. Now it is also the Las Vegas of Asia (actually bigger than Las Vegas in terms of gambling): as the only place in China where casino gambling is allowed (and since the vast majority of Chinese people love love love gambling), it is very popular.

B and I went to several casinos (including the MGM Grand and the Venetian), where he won money on slots and I lost all my money at roulette (but at least I honored Dostoevksy). We also saw a floor show of Russian dancegirls and went to the greyhound track, where I backed the winning dog much to my excitement. I had never been to any casinos before so it was quite exciting.

Back in China, in early April I took a week-long trip to Shandong province, which is in the north of China, south of Beijing and along the coast. Shandong is famous for 1. being the birthplace of Confucius and Mencius (China's second most famous philosopher) and 2. having the most holy Taoist mountain in China, which has been a place of pilgrimage since at least 500 BC. The people speak a very pure version of Chinese there (people in most other provinces have strong accents and speak other dialects as their first language), so it was much easier to navigate by myself than I'd expected. I visited both famous places (Qufu is Confucius' hometown and Taishan is the mountain).

The latest excitement is that my parents came to visit us for two weeks just recently. We had a wonderful time and I only wish that they could have stayed longer! In addition to seeing Shanghai, we traveled together to Chengdu (capital of Sichuan province, famous for 1. its very spicy food 2. its teahouse culture 3. pandas!), where my mother held a baby panda at the panda sanctuary and we visited many ancient temples and teahouses.

Then we went to Lijiang, in Yunnan province (in the southwest of China, near the border with southeast Asia), which may be the original for Shangri-La. It is high in the mountains but subtropical, so the climate is always temperate and the plant life is immensely rich (azaleas, camillas and many orchids are native to Yunnan). Lijiang is the center of life for the Naxi minority, which is a distinct ethnic group with a unique pictographic writing system (the only one still in use in the world), musical tradition (dating back over 1000 years), and cultural heritage. The town is extremely charming and well-preserved, with cobblestoned streets and a glacier-capped mountain in the distance. We visited the mountain, going up 15,000 feet (the highest I'd ever been! it was hard work moving around), as well as other sights down in the valley around Lijiang.

Then we flew to Chongqing (onetime capital of the country during WWII, when the Japanese had conquered large parts of coastal China), located on the Yangtze river. While there, we also visited the Dazu carvings, Buddhist cave sculptures carved from the 9th to 13th centuries, which was really spectacular. We also visited some ancient cities around Shanghai, including Suzhou and Hangzhou, famous for its West Lake.

Now we are getting ready for a trip from B's father and stepmother, so hopefully we will see some more interesting sights.