The Spouse Market aka Marriage Market

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8063777.stm

In Shanghai it's good to know that there is a market catered to all of your needs, wants, and uttermost desires. From fruits and veggies, to fake bags and shoes, bedding, fish, crickets, fabric, electronics, and even nuts and bolts... Shanghai has it all.

On a regular weekday you can get a custom sequin dress made for you in the fabric market, and then take a 3 dollar taxi to buy a Gucci clutch in another market, of course you can grab some chicken in another market for that supper you'll be making for the blind date your grandpa hooked you up with in the Marriage market. Oh yeah, you heard me...Marriage Market. Like I said there is a market for absolutely anything your little heart desires.

The average young Chinese person works 6 days a week. And if they aren't living at home with mom and dad, they're living in unisex residences. If you think it's hard to find a hot date back home, just imagine yourself working 60 hours a week and only having one day off a week. Oh yeah, and you share a room with 4 other people.

In China, the average girl is expected to marry in her early 20's and the men before their late 20's or early 30's. Also consider this one: It's frowned upon to date during high school and even sometimes, during university as well; mom and dad's only hope to a good retirement is that one kid and you pretty much have to pull straight A's to get that prime job after school. And you're also competing against a billion people. So when are you supposed to find this dreamboat you say? What to do?

Well, don't worry about it: Mom and Dad know just where to go! In comes the Spouse Market in People Square:

Every Saturday and Sunday, Mothers, Fathers, and even Grandparents post up little advertisements of their kids and then wait for a bite. These posters include the all important details: Sex, Age, Height, Schooling information, job description, and of course, salary. If one mother is interested in another’s daughter they’ll sit, discuss, and arrange a blind date. All the kids need to do now is meet up and see if they are each other’s eternal loves.

Call it strange, or materialistic, or even depressing. I call it amusing, if not even romantic. In a world where material possession is all that matters, at least some people are out there with their hearts on their sleeves and hoping for a little bit of love. Who says romance is dead when you’ve got mom and dad as cupid!

Check out the link I added at the top. Great information there as well as fantastic photos.

"Female, 30 years old, 162cm tall, works at FedEx and makes 11,000rmb a year, has her MBA and is looking for a man between 29 and 35 years old."

The waiting game.

Parents also pay agents to take care of it all.

Love!  xx

MoCA

Amy and I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday. What a little gem this place is, right in the middle of People Square.

The exhibit this month is "The Fifth Dimension-Art of Fiber and Space", where the creative works of each artist was supposed to "touch the area of visual sense and psychological experience, which traditional sculpture doesn't capture". I'm not sure if the pieces "touched my area of visual sense" as well as affected my "psychological experience" but it was certainly well worth the 20rmb entrance fee (so cheap!)

Check out a few peices that I liked or found interesting.

If you ever get the chance to go see, go!

xx!

Halloween in China!

Halloween is not a holiday in China, although some of the western restaurants in Shanghai had a few decorations to impress their foreign customers a few weeks coming up to the actual date. Many western holidays are starting to infiltrate Chinese culture and Halloween is coming around, albeit still dragging its heels.

I had the joy of teaching Halloween to my students this October. I was a little daunted at first; not knowing how to approach or introduce the topic but soon got into and had loads of fun with the kids.

And I'm pretty sure they just loved learning about/ acting out the scary monsters.

They learnt Mummy, Vampire, Ghost, Pumpkin, Black Cat, Bat, Witch, Mask, Candy, and of course, Trick or Treat, for which I actually had the kids Trick or Treat for real sweets! Dangle some candy and Canadian pennies in front of class and watch 50 disciplined kids go crazy...!!

Here are a few shots:

The kids and their masks. I printed some blank masks and they coloured them in, cut them out, and tied some string around them. Cute!

The masks I made and used as examples for the kids.

Mmm cheap chinese candy!

These were obviously their favourite! Canadian pennies!

Themed stickers

Scaaary flashcards!

More masks!

Love! xx

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

It's official. Summer is long gone and the cold winter rains have washed the last of the warmth out of the air.

I must admit, Shanghai's summer heat and humidity can be a little suffocating sometimes but I still loved it and now wish it would come back as the chill sets deep into my bones. I find myself reminiscing of the hot summer days that seem to have been stolen away by a cruel winter witch and think back on a few things that will remind me of China Summers for a long time: Summer Fruit.

I have already gabbed on about the Waxberry, which I'm sure I'll probably go crazy looking for back in Toronto, but there have been a few other "star fruits" that have been a great treat these past warm months.

Pomegranates were a big surprise here in Shanghai as I always thought they looked a little under ripe with their yellow-pink skins, but I took a couple home with me one day and discovered that their light skins revealed light pink fruit on the inside that I can only describe as "blush". Not as tart as the ones you find in your typical North-American superstore but much lighter in taste and faintly sweet. From that day on I was eating one or two a day until they went out of season.

Blush coloured fruit on the inside. Delicious!

Pomelos were (and still are!) one of my favourites as well. The pomelo tastes like a sweet, mild grapefruit - it has very little or none of the common grapefruit's bitterness.  I think it's also the only citrus fruit that has its segment's membranes removed before eating. I can go through a whole pomelo in a couple of days, although a few segments would be the equivalent of a large orange.

As big as your head!

The flesh without any skin. mmm

As fall comes to an end and winter completely takes over, I'll try to find a few more seasonal fruits as they appear. Lets see what comes up shall we?

Love! xx

World's Greatest City: 50 reasons why Shanghai is no.1

CNN recently rated Shanghai as the world's greatest city. Of course I have no objections and couldn't think of a more wonderful place to live in right now.

Check it out:

http://www.cnngo.com/shanghai/none/worlds-greatest-city-50-reasons-why-shanghai-no-1-590704/?pks=ggl+Shanghai+No+1

# 4 sums it up I think:

"Shanghai’s energy is what makes it one of the greatest cities around -- it's the American Dream “a la Chinoise” where everything and anything is still possible."

love!

xx

Shangri-la/ Zhongdian (June 30 - July 2)

Zhongdian County was renamed Shangri-La in 2001 to attract tourists. It’s still known as Zhongdian to most locals but everyone recognizes the new name because of the infamous book it was named after.

“Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. In the book, "Shangri-La" is a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise but particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia — a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world.”

Situated over 4500 meters above sea-level on the old Tibetan border in China, Zhongdian is, in every sense of the word, breathtaking. The town still held much of its old character but the best views were outside of town where I found myself in the middle of majestic mountains and ancient Tibetan monasteries.

On day one I was lucky to meet up with a couple I had met in Dali and they quickly told me that I should absolutely see a monastery that was 3 hours outside of town. This proved to be the highlight of my trip to Shangri-la and I could even say that the trip itself was the best part. Rolling evergreen mountains covered in clouds cleared way for gold tan hills and crisp blue skies as we neared the monastery and I was struck at how much the landscapes changed drastically within a few miles. From lush to dry, from green to gold, from humid to dry as a desert.

Once we arrived, my group and I wandered around the village of the monastery. Everything from upkeep to food was the responsibility of the villagers. Everyone lived around the monastery and made their life about it. It was incredibly humbling and was the kind of experience that makes you wonder why and if you even need all of your material possessions. Things like Community, Faith, and Spirit are true possessions that can’t be attained through monetary means, but hard work, purpose, and strength of mind. These people living in the monastery were probably far richer than I will ever be in richness of heart, mind, and soul. I know that I’ve learned to live much simpler now, and realize that sometimes a want is merely a need for something deeper. Maybe this feeling will stay with me. Maybe it won’t.

My remaining time in Zhongdian was spent exploring the old town around my hostel. Small temples and places of worship littered the streets and although most of the Tibetan-style buildings had been converted to little shops catering to foreigners, people’s smiles were still authentic and the food was still cheap. I still hadn’t gotten accustomed to the higher altitude there so most of my exploration would be intercepted with small breaks to give my legs and lungs a break (less oxygen in the air = more cramped legs) but this just added to my experience.

Within a few days I had seen most of what Zhongdian had to offer and the cold weather and rain shooed me out and I was off to Lijiang.

At the Tibetan monastery

Into the wild Clouds rolling off the mountains

xx!

Dali (June 26 - July 30)

I left Kunming a day early and decided I was going to make my trip to Dali in an overnight train. This proved to be a little less fun than anticipated and I spent most of my time trying to fall asleep with the lights on and to the hum of Chinese chatter that went way late into the night. Lesson learned: I was going to stick to buses where at least people fell asleep.

So upon arriving in Dali, I quickly noticed how really lovely this little town was. The city consisted of a few touristy streets within a town that was still holding on to its old heritage: Ancient buildings, city walls and the old city moat are the sites most frequented by visitors. The area is surrounded by mountains on the east, west, and south, and has the Erhai Lake in its center which I spent a day biking to.

Oh, and did I mention the Ganja? Yeah, that's sold here like any other souvenir...

I met a good group of people there as well. It seems that we were all looking for a break and some fresh air, which is exactly what Dali gave us. The hostel I stayed in was fantastic and even had peanut butter and jam for my toast which I grew to love every morning with a pot of jasmine tea (I can still smell its sweet perfume to this day! Mmm)

I’ll remember the old stone houses that crumbled but held on to their foundations even hundreds of years into their existences, and the fresh markets that sold scallop the size of my fist, and of course Foreigner Street that sold beautiful hand-dyed Batik fabrics. I will definitely remember biking all day to Erhai Lake, through rice and corn fields, and watching the mountains follow us the whole time. It was a good little place that offered blue skies, great pictures, and some piece of mind.

Old good-luck charms on a door

One of the great Dali gates

The farm ladies still carry all of their goods the 'old-fashion' way... She probably walks over an hour with her goods slung over her shouler like that.

xx!

Kunming (June 24 - June 25)

I stopped here after Yuanyang for a few days and originally planned to stay longer, but the sheer lack of things to see cut my time here in half. (This is fact turned out to be a blessing since I then made time to go to Shangri-la)

Kunming is a relatively medium-sized city and the capital of Yunnan province. Like all capital cities it's clean and safe. And well, that's it...! I can’t say that there isn’t a thing for everyone. Some people do love this city but I was going for character and this city lacks the old charms of so many other smaller cities.

What Kunming did do, in fact, was show me another side of China; one of day-to-day charms like markets and community bonding rituals like the great Chinese past-time of Mahjong. As I noticed before at the bus station on my way to Yuanyang, Kunming seems to be the gateway of modernity in a province that is still grasping on to its roots, and while other cities like Shanghai are tripping over themselves trying to race for an invisible finish line, Kunming is happy to be prancing and whistling while it enjoys the run.

The great game of Mahjong

Yuanyang (June 21 – June 23)

I arrived in Kunming, which was my transfer city to Yuanyang, at around 7am. The bus taking me to Yuanyang was leaving at 10am so I had a bit of time to spare. I had had approximately 3 or 4 hours of sleep on the bus so my exhaustion compelled me to stay in the station and just wait patiently.

I saw dozens of families move their entire life’s belongings from city to city through that bus station, business men from small towns hoping to make some money in The Big City, and drifters making a few dollars by selling pens and gum to travelers.

I finally found myself in the bus that would get me to Yuanyang and it was on that ride that I met Baptiste and Marie – both French speakers but Baptiste was French and Marie was Canadian.

We finally arrived in Yuanyang after having dealt with an 8 hour ride, trench-like “toilets”, cockroaches, sick Chinese passengers, and a strange sour smell we quickly connected with a cardboard box that was leaking meat juice from meats that had thawed albeit being frozen at the beginning of our journey. And yes that box had been placed under the bus along with all of our backpacks, and we definitely laughed all the way to the hostel trying to determine whose bag had marinated in the meat juice because the smell followed us all the way up.

Soon after checking into our hostel we secured a driver who would chauffeur us around the terraces the following day, starting at 6am. We then met up with a few other travelers that Marie had previously befriended in Kunming and we grabbed a good supper at one of the local restaurants and shared some beer before heading to bed before our early start the next morning.

I woke up early the next morning to the sound of rain and my heart sunk as I thought of the rainy and wet day that lay ahead of me. What would happen to the beautiful landscapes I was so looking forward to? Fortunately, the rain spit out its last few drops as we drove up a hill to our first terrace and my spirit once again regained its enthusiasm.

Although we had arrived in the middle of season and the rice was already half grown, I was still left in awe for most of the day as we toured the hills and were presented with mountains that seemed to have been carved by the gods themselves. It was with constant reminders that we would remember that these mountains had been shaped over hundreds of years by the Hani people, and were left with an intense appreciation for human tenacity.

Were they in a more accessible part of China these terraces would already have been heavily developed for tourism, and no doubt lost much of their appeal. Perhaps then it is a blessing in disguise that by accident of modern geography they lie in Yunnan, a province so abundant in natural beauty and diverse scenery that these rice terraces have so far been overlooked to a certain extent... Most of the information on this area I had to procure through blogs on the internet!

If anyone is interested in going, please feel free to contact me. I’ll try and help as much as possible, everyone should be lucky enough to witness such outstanding beauty. It was a true privilege that I saw these hills and hope to remember them for the rest of my life.

An older Hani woman carrying water up to her village

Sunset views at one of the lookout points

The small village we stayed in.

xx!