Venice on a Saturday afternoon...

The Venice of Asia that is!

There are a few cities in Asia that have been given the title "Venice of Asia", mostly because these cities work on, or have many canal systems like the european Venice. Bangkok, Suzhou, and Zhujiajio are all famous for their Canals, and now that I have been to Zhujiajiao I can almost cross Venice (the real one) off my list. This small city is quite similar to Venice, right down to it's Gondolas. The only real difference is the language, the people and, unh, the location... haha.

Iwas picked up at 8am sharp on Saturday morning and had already been told that we were headed to Zhujiajio (roughly pronounced jew-jyah-joe with soft j's) but that morning, they decided to start me off at the Grand View Garden.

The Grand View Garden was built in 1984 around one of China's famous love stories "Dream of the Red Chamber". The park itself is massive, spanning just over 13 hectars, and shows fantastic examples of chinese architecture. We arrived early enough to miss most of the tourists and I couldn't help but unwind and listen to the trees rustle in the wind... it was so peaceful and so beautiful.

To read up on Dream of the Red Chamber: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_of_the_Red_Chamber

Beautiful Architecture

Amazing use of colour!

I want to live in a house with a roof like this...

Part of Grand View Park was it's beautiful Plum Blossom tree park (Mei Yuan). They had three prominent species - a pink, a green, and a pink variety, and they were all incredibly pretty and fragrant.

In March, when plum blossoms are in full bloom, the Mei Yuan is a stunning sight. One of Mei Yuan’s scenic areas, Meiwu Chunnong, is already known as the best place in Shanghai to see plum blossoms.

Here are a few shots:







Located on the banks of Dianshan Lake in the western suburbs of Shanghai, Zhujiajiao covers a total of 138 sq. kms, including an ancient-town area of 2.7 sq. kms. It was found almost 1700 years ago, and there are numerous rivers criss-crossing the town, 9 long streets run along the river, thousands of ancient buildings stand on the banks of the rivers with more than 30 old bridges adding to the beauty of the town and every bridge is unique and has its own story to tell.
We didn't spend much time in the actual town of Zhujiajiao, but focused mostly on the old town within it.

The first stop was Fangsheng Bridge (Setting-fish-free Bridge), which the longest, largest and tallest stone bridge. I've been told that to visit Zhujiajiao without seeing the bridges means that you have not really been to Zhujiajiao at all, and ever bridge in the town are distinctive and old, built during Ming and Qing Dynasties. The old town is thoroughly connected by 36 delicate spans in different shapes and styles, from wooden to stone to marble.

There are many sellers trying to sell you fish to "set free" on these bridges, mostly Fangsheng Bridge, and I almost purchased two for 5rmb (just under a dollar) that I could throw off the bridge and "set free". Unfortunately, I was told that the bridge is lined with nets underneath the water and those poor fish are just caught once more to be thrown off again. I didn't want to stress out the poor fish so I skipped that idea.

Once we crossed the bridge, we were welcomed into the small alley-like streets that make up most of this small town. Many street vendors have stalls and sell anything from knicknacks to silk, to tea, to candies, and other speciality items. I fell in love with modern paintings that depicted scenes in Zhujiajiao but the artist didn't want to sell his paintings for less than 80rmb each, and I wanted a few so it just wasn't meant to be. If I go back I'll try my luck again and see if I can find something similar for less.

We spent the afternoon enjoying the scenery and one teacher was generous enough to give us a tour of the school he worked at nearly 30 years ago. He had been posted there after working the fields during the revolution, mostly because he could speak a little english and was told he would be a benefit to this small community. He has been teaching ever since.

Here are a few pictures:

Fangsheng Bridge

Gondolas!

Fishermen selling their catch of the day

Beautiful little canals and gondolas

Little alley way with tons of things to buy...

Beside the tree that mr. Zhu planted when he taught at this school. The school has since been turned into a museum of sorts. The red ribbons are wishes that people have left on the branches and roots.

Riding the Gondola

More beautiful views from the vantage point of the gondola

Hope you've enjoyed this... (I certainly did... )

love! xox

Sheng ri Kuai le to Me!

I celebrated my 25th birthday yesterday.

I'm officially a quarter of a century old.

Somehow some of my coworkers found out about this last week and told me that they would take me out to a nice restaurant. Of course this sounded great and I was grateful for the gesture.

What I didn't know, and what I never expected, was for the news to spread like wildfire through to every student and teacher at school, and to then be presented with well wishes, notes, presents, cards, flowers, and treats by nearly every one there. It was incredibly humbling to be so well thought of, and it definitely left a lasting impression that will stay with me for a long time.

My most prized possessions are the hand-made cards from various students (most of whom I never even taught!) because they made sure to spell my name correctly and each wrote a nice note wishing me health and happiness, and of course, eternal beauty (a favourite of theirs).

That evening for supper, I was taken to the "Pretty Red Fish" restaurant. They specialize in Seafood and the food is indeed delicious and very fresh, as it's the kind of place you walk into, go straight to the ‘aquariums’ and pick your meal while it's still alive.

Of course they had pre-chosen the dishes for this occasion because they wanted to make sure they had "only the best" for this evening. This included the restaurant's best wine, and two GIANT cakes which I was to bring home to share with the English teachers in my residence.

20 teachers shared the table and ate at least 15 different starters, 25 different plates of food, 10 different desserts, and a few bottles of wine. The most amusing thing I’ve come to notice is how they drink their wine and beer here. It isn’t sipped on like in North America, but rather, taken like a shot of liquor. You basically go around the table, Cheers a fellow friend, and chug-a-lug. It was definitely a different way of doing it and I appreciate the enthusiasm they have for this. They especially loved saying Bottoms Up or I Love You before inviting someone to a shot.

Not only did I enjoy myself, but I was able to try a few traditional and regional specialities: frog, jellied pork, some kind of seafood cartilage, clams, jellied crab, and a handful of other tasty treats. .. I don’t know that I would eat most of those dishes again, but I am quite glad to have tried them.

By the end of the night, I had done various beer and wine shots, had eaten things I never knew existed, been sung Happy Birthday a dozen times, had been given two flower bouquets, a multitude of cards, gifts, and eaten cake with Chopsticks; not only do I think I was so lucky, but I am also proud to say that it all happened here in China.

To cap off the evening, I came back to residence and had a beer with my fellow English teachers while we munched on my second cake and talked about life here in China. It was a pretty perfect end of night and sleep welcomed me by the time we were done.

Here are a few pictures from that day.... and yes, I am bragging just a little bit here.

Enjoy!

Singing frames, cellphone toys, scarf

Roses and a goodie bag

A beautiful card

My second bouquet of roses... see how they dress them up?

A card from a girl named Sweet.

Bling Bears, hand-made necklace, earrings

Cheers! (Gambei!)

Dragon chopstick holders

Crab

Local fish

Local crab

Dining in Qingpu

My 1st cake...

Bob, world traveller

Dennis and Sophie, cutest couple ever

In front of my second cake...

xox love!

Chinese morning exercises and Eye exercises

So I haven't taken any videos of this yet, but take a look at the videos I found on Youtube... They are pretty much exactly what my kids do at my school. The morning exercise happens after the first two classes, at around 9:15am, the eye exercises happen once in the morning, and once in the afternoon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayQyDWuCmkc&feature=channel_page
Morning Exercises (Think large though, there are between 2500-3000 students at my school)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r7kChKTaMo
Eye Exercises

Enjoy! xox

The Bund & Pudong

I went back into Shanghai proper yesterday; mostly for some sightseeing and to meet up with a fellow teach whom I met during orientation.

My main objectives were to re-visit Nanjing lu while I walked towards the Bund on Zhongshan lu. My last attempt at Nanjing was mostly in and around the area but I never finished Nanjing lu east so I thought this would be a good start to the day. I then was going to head South towards YuYuan Gardens in Old Shanghai (Nanshi) to get a better view of 'Old China''. (Of course this area is much more of a tourist trap than anything but the buildings are authentic and well kept.)

We took the bus from Qingpu to Shanghai Downtown around 10:35 and arrived a little after 11, which was good considering it was a Saturday. Of course by the time the bus arrived at our stop it was standing room only and we were left to hold on while the bus went barrelling down the highway. The good thing about a bus packed like a can of sardines is that when any bump or sudden stop kicked in, we were all too wedged in to really notice much.

I was glad to see that our final stop in Shanghai was very close to People's Square and easy walking distance to Nanjing Lu E. The unfortunate thing was that the weather was a tad chilly and I had dressed for slightly warmer weather... All the more reason to get going and start walking. Once Bob showed me the directions, I was off on my own.

Having seen much of Nanjing before, I was able to really focus on what was around me, the things that I remembered, and things that were still new. Saturday was especially interesting because it was Valentine's Day. This holiday has recently become popular with the younger crowd and is even beginning to show more importance over their traditional love day which happens on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. Of course this means that tacky floral bouquets were all over Nanjing, being sold by many sellers hoping for a quick buck.

Towards the end of the road, I happen to fall into an underground commodities market. It was brimming with small knickknacks and little souvenir bobbles but as I went lower into the building, I soon noticed that there was much more: I had found myself in a huge fakes market. I had been to one in New York, where they would take brazen tourists down small alleys into dark rooms with ''the best'' counterfeit goods you could buy. This was like that, but much bigger. Of course I was like a mouse to a hawk and I was soon assaulted with many different options ‘‘Miss Miss, bag for you?'', ''pretty lady watch fo your boyfend?''

The trick is to ask for their best stuff, which is usually kept in the back somewhere. This particular seller's things were in the back, down many little alleys and into a room full of stock. I was then shown the ''good stuff'' hidden behind some bags. Needless to say, I picked up a nice Montblanc and was able to haggle the price from $112 (''Best price for you!'') to $35. I know that I overpaid by at least 15 dollars but I was growing tired of the back and forth and left it as is. I don't even want to know how much a native speaker would have been able to get the watch for. Around 10 I'm assuming.

This is one aspect of shopping here that I can't stand, but it's the price that I pay for being a foreigner.

Once I had had enough of the heckling, I left with my prize and made my way out, back towards the bund. It was a particularly cold day and the humidity was around 55% which meant that there was going to be a lot of fog. Fog here is a mixture of water and dust as the thick humid air holds allot of whatever is kicking around. As I came closer to the water's edge, I could see the outlines of Pudong's new skyline, and when I turned around to where I came from, I could see the old buildings of the Bund. To be honest, I wasn't particularly interested in seeing these attractions as they are incredibly touristy and overhyped but I was interested in its history.

Before the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949 (which ended western imperialist rule but also caused the economy to take a sharp dive for the worse for about two decades,) the Bund (or Waitan in Chinese) had been the financial, political, commercial and cultural center of western powers in Shanghai.

After Shanghai was opened as one of five "Treaty Ports" in the Treaty of Nanjing (I looked this up) that ended the Opium War in 1842, the Bund became the financial and political center of the international community (and indeed of much of China). It was China's ''Wall Street'', as Shanghai's financial market became the third largest in the world. The twenty-four major structures that make up The Bund have changed little externally since the 1930s. All were constructed in western-inspired styles --classical, Gothic, renaissance, eclectic and modern, and have been called a ‘museum of international architecture’.

Because of this I was expecting so much. Unfortunately, once I arrived the buildings themselves looks a little old as not much restoration work had been done and some of them looked pretty miserable. China, and especially Shanghai, is in such a mood to catch up to the rest of the world that it soon forgets it's old buildings, its charm - the Thing that gives it character and history. Now the only thing you see in Shanghai is the struggle between new and old, where new is demolishing old and replacing it with ''modern'' steel structures. I am glad I got to see some of it before it's completely destroyed. One example of this is Pudong. This part of Shanghai used to be rice paddies just 10-15 years ago. It's now an ever expanding farm of steel structures that loom over the city.

I didn't step more than 5 steps onto the deck of the Bund area before I was asked to have a picture taken with someone, this soon followed with two more requests, then three. At this point I was comfortable enough to ask someone to take a picture of me and Pudong, which they happily did. Thinking back I really wished I started charging for pictures... I would have made a killing. This is something else that I really have not been able to get used to - the fact that I am this foreign. I long to go places anonymously and sometimes think of buying a black wig just to get around without being bothered or stared at.

Oh dear, that will be for another day.

By the time I made it across the Bund, I had developed quite a headache and decided that what I needed the most was sleep. I had been fighting a cold for a week now and the last thing I needed was a night out and no sleep. When I got to the pickup area for Qingpu buses, I had no way of finding out which was the milkrun and which was the quick bus, so I just took a guess, jumped on, and 1 hour and thirty minutes and a scenic drive later, arrived home.


Old Shanghai and a night out will just have to wait.


xx love.

Pudong Skyline

Pay close attention to all of the buildings... so many!

Chinese Tourists

Look closely... this is a restaurant on a boat.

Yours truly, thanks to some new friends haha

One of my fans... had to get a picture.

Nanjing Lu (Nanjing Road)

One of Shanghai's many shopping streets, Nanjing Lu is the one where everyone heads first.

It caters for a mainly Chinese clientele rather than tourists or expats, and so I found it to be a good place to watch the Shanghainese at play. There's also an open-area stage for live music and promotions, although nothing was going on when I had been, other than a small band playing music and people dancing to it. very cute.

This place is literally the Vegas of the Orient and I found it a little too overhwhelming, especially because I was grabbed a few times by overzealous sellers and beggars.

I don't mind the repetitious ''Lady Lady, bag watch shoes purse???'' but when my personal space is invaded, I get a little annoyed. Not only that, but I was almost taken for a lot of money with a Tea Ceremony scam. My only recommendation is that you go with a group of friends and that you don't trust overly friendly people, because in this area of town, they are most likely after your money, not your company.

Other than that, it is quite the scene. I loved the amount of information that is forced in front of you. I loved the colours, light, and energy. And I suprisingly loved the large amount of people that surrounded me.

Here are a few pictures:

Nanjing by day

Doors replaced by flaps to keep the cold out.

xx!

Shopping in Shanghai

So when I was still in Shanghai proper last week (Qingpu is a district, just outside the main city) I had a chance to see a bit of what Chinese Shopping really had to offer.

Well, it offers alot actually. If Shopping was a sport, China would get the gold medal.

I needed to buy a camera battery charger as I'd forgotten mine at home in Toronto so another teacher and I headed out to one of Shanghai's many Electronic Markets. The markets in Shanghai consist of large multi-level malls with many many stalls selling the same products. It can be both overwhelming and exhilarating when you think about how much time you could take looking for the perfect gadget at the perfect price. And yes, I did find my perfect charger at the perfect price of 100rmb(15CAD), compare that to 100CAD back home and I had quite the deal!

When we left the mall, we walked around and walked through the main strip where there were many other malls waiting for a rifling, but I had found what I came looking for and so we went out to the french concession to meet up with a few of her friends for a meal and some drinks (I stuck to drinks since we had just eaten)

Here are a few pictures from around the electronics mall on Xanjahui:

The inside of one particular mall. Many levels.

Just outside, across the street.

Mall entrance.

xx!

So far, an update.

Yup, it’s official, I've been here one week and I'm still alive.

I had my first day of classes yesterday, what an eye opener. The school I am teaching at is a public elementary/middle school combination. When I say public school I mean that I am part of the actual staff here at Yi Yang School... I don't work at an ''English school'' but rather, am part of a public school's actual curriculum.

And yes, when I realized this, it was really scary.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very lucky how that worked out. I get to see how the Chinese school system works and how they create those oh-so hardworking ''Workers''. (I say worker because when you ask a child what his parents do for a living, they will simply respond: ''My father is a worker''. There are no clear definitions of what middle class employment is.)

Things I have learned about the Chinese Public System since yesterday:

• The schools are giant. My school has no less than 3000 students (I have 12 groups of grade 1 students...!)
• The Chinese teachers are GOD. As students, you do as they say, no more, no less. If you go outside those boundaries, you will get punished. Punishment ranges from insults, to yelling, to embarrassing comments, and even to hitting... yes hitting.)
• Because of this, it's very hard to get an answer out of a student if they aren't sure what it is. It sometimes takes me to up to a whole class to get an answer out of any one student. Once they realize I'm not going to smack them, they loosen up. At least a bit.
• They all have uniforms (Public or private. This includes arm badges that tell you what grade they are in.)
• Lunch is served cantine-style on metal trays. Everyone eats the same meal.
• They have 15 minute breaks between each class, and every two classes they do eye exercises. I haven't seen this yet.
• After their first two classes, they do their Chinese Exercises. This consists of students lining up in endless lines and doing a choreographed stand-up routine. This has been the highlight of my experience at this school... It's bizarre but it's yet another example of this state-run system in which they basically train students to do, say, and think all alike. It was really quite the sight. I'll get a video of this later.
• They had EVERY kid memorize my name because to this school, I am a valued guest and should be respected at all times. I get allot of HELLO NOAHMEE's while getting to, being at, and leaving school.
• There is no central heating in schools, or anywhere for that matter. You just wear your coat indoors. I can't wait for summer.

Classes so far are going well. I have 12 groups of grade 1 students that I see twice a week and then I have ''Teacher Discussion Time'' twice a week. From what understand, this consists of me talking to various teachers in the school to help with practice. They've literally BUILT a new English Center for this purpose and I’ve already picked a paint colour for it. Yeesh!

--

Apart from school life, Qingpu is my new home and so far I couldn't be more foreign if I tried. I live in a Teacher's College residence along with 5 other BSK teachers (Two of whom haven't arrived yet) and I'm only now getting used to the stares. I get allot of HELLO's and HOW AW YOU's and many many pointing fingers. Most are from kids but I get allot of attention from men and very curious chatter from older folk who can have an endless conversation with me even though I don't say much more than hello, how are you, and thank you.

I also find it amusing, albeit slightly insulting, when they laugh uncontrollably when I use chopsticks or say anything in Chinese.

Oh well.


More to come later.


Much love!