Far, far from the China Sea, it seems like I just landed in North America. BUT, as you can read, nearly two months have passed. Life's tidal movement pulled me forward and soon the travels in China and Tibet moved further and further into memory. Today, I write from Chattanooga, Tennessee where the leaves of Fall are just beginning to turn and Wal-Mart is big. I carry my great-niece and hope that she too will experience the fullness of life as I have.
Since returning to the U.S. I have traveled to the other edge of the Pacific Ocean in Oregon and California, been wine tasting in the Anderson Valley of Mendocino County (California; highly recommended), traveled through San Francisco and Marin County, been to the retreat center of Chagdud Gonpa in Northern California, a wonderful few days in Portland, Oregon. Many people have been interested in wanting to know what I experienced. Some wanted to know about the Tibetan experience, some about China; but most just want the 5 minute sound bite. What is amazing is the lack of curiosity. Sometimes I think it is a desire to respect my privacy and not be too intrusive; at other other times I think it is indicative of our time and cultural: self-focused and not interested in the greater world.
A friend of mine has made a couple of trips to Tibet and made an interesting comment that I'd like you to consider. He said that half of the monks in some of the monasteries aren't really monks, but employees of the Chinese government that are spying for the government. This seems like a preposterous statement and feeds into the image from the Cultural Revolution of a despotic and genocidal government. But even if this isn't true, what does this type of thinking do? It creates doubt. Given the history, if there was even a chance that this was true, what would people's actions be? It creates doubt and doubt restricts our actions. We become our own censors.
Then the Chinese government does things that makes me wonder what is really going on there. If you want an interesting read at about a recent event, go to Mikhel Dunham's blog at http://www.mikeldunham.blogs.com/. You'll need to page about a third the way down to read the piece Samye Monastery as Disneyworld.
Or what about them denying lamas visas to return to Tibet? Or the fact that I could post but not read my blog in China. Many little pieces to remind us that they have a different socio-political world that they operate within. As people from the U.S., we are known as people who share their thoughts and feelings more openly than many people. We have not had the repercussions that the Tibetans, Mongolians, or others have experienced. (There is another book that you might want to read: A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phuntso Wangye b
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Returning to the States
I leave for the states tomorrow, leaving this lovely Lamma Island and Hong Kong where it has been very warm and muggy ever since the tropical storm came through. (The last ferry to the island apparently issued life jackets and everyone had to wear them... some pretty freaked out people.)
One little tidbit I wanted to share before I leave Asian shores is about this nature reserve I visited day before yesterday. Mai Po Marsh is just a short train and bus ride away from the heart of Hong Kong. It is a large reserve that is home to many birds throughout the year. During the Fall/Spring migration apparently there are hundreds of species. One article listed that over 400 species have been sighted here. It is a pretty venue and a very nice break from the intensity of the human environment in the area. Here are some links to read more about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mai_Po_Marshes and http://www.hkoutdoors.com/hong-kong-birding/mai-po-birding.html
I saw birds that I've never seen before and it was a great way to spend a day even though it was in the middle of the summer and I got there in the late morning as things were heating up... still it was worth it. All the trails are asphalt or concrete, so it makes it very accessible to people. I don't know the exact arrangement, but it seems that the World Wildlife Fund of Hong Kong has some sort of concession to issue permits, do volunteer work, etc. There are a number of blinds (they call them hides) to look out from. The primary bird species I kept seeing was the Great Egret. Cost was around $16 to get in and a deposit of around $19 needs to be left. Visitors are issued two permits: one for the reserve and one for entering into a restricted area. You see, one edge of the marsh is the fence line between "Mainland" China. It was weird to be walking along this trail with a tall fence (15 feet?) on one side, cyclone barbed wire atop that, high intensity spot lights every few feet, and guard towers (now empty)... all this seems to be remnants of a time when communist China was in a different phase. I don't know if they are used anymore.
Almost within earshot of the reserve is the growing metropolis of Shenzhen. When I was in this area 26 years ago, this was a small town... maybe even a village. It was so small I have no memory of it. It is the place where people cross from the New Territories of Hong Kong to "Mainland" China. Back then it was where I got off the train, had my passport checked, and got on another train/bus. Now it is a major manufacturing and industrial center. In a recent paper article, they are talking about wanting the Shenzhen/Hong Kong metroplex to rival L.A., New York and Tokyo.
When/if that happens I hope they learn from other's and not repeat the same development mistakes, like keeping the Mai Po Marsh healthy. I hope they choose as an example of a successful city a place like Portland. The green belt that has been created with Washington Park allows for open access by many species of wildlife. Though there is not a lot of mammals here, I hope they help to keep the area clean enough for the birds to come and live, or to migrate through.
That is the challenge that modern China faces... will they repeat the mistakes of countries who have gone before them? I hope not. This marsh is but one small example of where they could do it right and learn how to allow habitat to be maintained while they build their infrastructure to support their people. It was heartening for me to see the environmental education they are doing here and know that there are people trying to help maintain the ecological balance amidst such great odds.
Hong Kong has a lot of diversity: from the Gucci and Prada stores where they sell $1000 hand bags to the pure white feathers of a Great Egret flying over the Shenzhen River. It has been a great place to spend time. I went through the Jade Market today (http://cyberfair.fixip.net/shop_market003.htm) and then returned to Lamma Island. This island has been a haven for me: quiet, away from the hubbub, and a 30 min. ferry ride to get here. If you are ever in this neck of the woods, check this little island/village out.
Well, it is time to close this chapter and my travels in Asia. I leave here early tomorrow and will be traveling for around 18 hours (if things go as planned). I'll miss not flying Cathay Pacific (an airline that really deserves it's first class reputation) because they didn't have any seats, but I'll discover what China Airlines has to offer.
Take care and I'll do some wrap-ups when I'm back in the states.
One little tidbit I wanted to share before I leave Asian shores is about this nature reserve I visited day before yesterday. Mai Po Marsh is just a short train and bus ride away from the heart of Hong Kong. It is a large reserve that is home to many birds throughout the year. During the Fall/Spring migration apparently there are hundreds of species. One article listed that over 400 species have been sighted here. It is a pretty venue and a very nice break from the intensity of the human environment in the area. Here are some links to read more about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mai_Po_Marshes and http://www.hkoutdoors.com/hong-kong-birding/mai-po-birding.html
I saw birds that I've never seen before and it was a great way to spend a day even though it was in the middle of the summer and I got there in the late morning as things were heating up... still it was worth it. All the trails are asphalt or concrete, so it makes it very accessible to people. I don't know the exact arrangement, but it seems that the World Wildlife Fund of Hong Kong has some sort of concession to issue permits, do volunteer work, etc. There are a number of blinds (they call them hides) to look out from. The primary bird species I kept seeing was the Great Egret. Cost was around $16 to get in and a deposit of around $19 needs to be left. Visitors are issued two permits: one for the reserve and one for entering into a restricted area. You see, one edge of the marsh is the fence line between "Mainland" China. It was weird to be walking along this trail with a tall fence (15 feet?) on one side, cyclone barbed wire atop that, high intensity spot lights every few feet, and guard towers (now empty)... all this seems to be remnants of a time when communist China was in a different phase. I don't know if they are used anymore.
Almost within earshot of the reserve is the growing metropolis of Shenzhen. When I was in this area 26 years ago, this was a small town... maybe even a village. It was so small I have no memory of it. It is the place where people cross from the New Territories of Hong Kong to "Mainland" China. Back then it was where I got off the train, had my passport checked, and got on another train/bus. Now it is a major manufacturing and industrial center. In a recent paper article, they are talking about wanting the Shenzhen/Hong Kong metroplex to rival L.A., New York and Tokyo.
When/if that happens I hope they learn from other's and not repeat the same development mistakes, like keeping the Mai Po Marsh healthy. I hope they choose as an example of a successful city a place like Portland. The green belt that has been created with Washington Park allows for open access by many species of wildlife. Though there is not a lot of mammals here, I hope they help to keep the area clean enough for the birds to come and live, or to migrate through.
That is the challenge that modern China faces... will they repeat the mistakes of countries who have gone before them? I hope not. This marsh is but one small example of where they could do it right and learn how to allow habitat to be maintained while they build their infrastructure to support their people. It was heartening for me to see the environmental education they are doing here and know that there are people trying to help maintain the ecological balance amidst such great odds.
Hong Kong has a lot of diversity: from the Gucci and Prada stores where they sell $1000 hand bags to the pure white feathers of a Great Egret flying over the Shenzhen River. It has been a great place to spend time. I went through the Jade Market today (http://cyberfair.fixip.net/shop_market003.htm) and then returned to Lamma Island. This island has been a haven for me: quiet, away from the hubbub, and a 30 min. ferry ride to get here. If you are ever in this neck of the woods, check this little island/village out.
Well, it is time to close this chapter and my travels in Asia. I leave here early tomorrow and will be traveling for around 18 hours (if things go as planned). I'll miss not flying Cathay Pacific (an airline that really deserves it's first class reputation) because they didn't have any seats, but I'll discover what China Airlines has to offer.
Take care and I'll do some wrap-ups when I'm back in the states.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Hong Kong
The rains have continued aided by tropical storm Pabuk. The storm added to much chaos toward the end of the working day two days ago, but from a perspective of someone who wasn't going anywhere and had no appointments to keep, it was a fun storm to watch. Just like being on the Oregon coast in the winter to watch a storm, it is nice when you don't have to be in it. The rain here is like being in a lukewarm shower, very similar to swimming in the water here. Not as warm as a place like Thailand, but pleasant.
The day the first storm warning was issued I decided to go to Lantau Island (the largest island here and the island where they've built the new airport) and see the world's largest cast bronze seated Buddha. Here is a link for you to see photos. (Wikipedia to the rescue again.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian_Tan_Buddha
Lantau also has 100 km of hiking trails. This is something that not many people appreciate about HK- there is a lot to do outside away from the dense urban environment. I was interested in doing some sea kayaking but found out that a person needs to take a series of courses and get an i.d. that approves you for kayaking, plus a HK i.d. card is needed to rent a kayak... being protective of people's ignorance and lunacy I guess.
Being at the Tian Tan Buddha I was reminded of the diversity of this region. This statue is of a Buddha, around the island are many monasteries, including a Trappist monastery. Throughout HK there are cathedrals, temples, and mosques. According to my friend who teaches here, most of his students are Christians of one type of another. It was an amazing statue to see and there were many, many people on that extremely hot day.
My health is improving, though I've had a bit of a relapse today... maybe being out all day yesterday was a bit too taxing. I spent most of the day shopping throughout Central and in the Tsim Tsa Shui area. I spent the later part of the evening in the Temple St. Market. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Street,_Hong_Kong and http://www.temple.street.hk/)
This place starts to open up at 2 p.m. and closes somewhere between midnight and 2 a.m. It is a bargain hunters dream and almost anything made inexpensively/cheaply in China could probably be found here. There are also plenty of "regular" shops. A friend's brother owns a shop/storefront here: Mandala Arts Trading Co. Bhim, the owner, sells Nepalese, Tibetan, and Indian arts. He has good stuff and is located at 143 Temple St. (That is a plug for a new friend making a living for him and his family.)
Part of the reason for shopping is that I'm returning early to the U.S. on August 16. I've decided that if I'm going to hang out, recovering my energy, that I'd rather do it with my family and friends in Oregon during the summer. I gave some thought to going to Koh Samui (an island) in Thailand, but decided that is for another trip. There are some other things that have crossed my mind too.
Many of us accumulate things in our lives. Our rooms are filled with things of importance, nicknack's, family hand-me-downs, and art/crafts. Occasionally, people go through purges and clean their closet out... only to have some gremlin replace it with other collectibles. I've noticed that for many people in the middle of their lives that the momentum to accumulate starts to wane and I'm at the stage where collecting things seem to be less and less of interest. It doesn't mean that accumulations stop, but it has shifted in importance.
There are other people who collect experiences. My last real alpine climb was in Bolivia and the man I climbed with seemed to have no interest in the aesthetics of the climb, just interested in adding another alpine climb to his lifetime list... not my style or of much interest to me. There are people who collect travel experiences: they have very little material goods but they acquire the experiences of movement. This accumulation is not as easy to see, but in a way, it has a similar quality as the person who accumulates tangible objects. This too has taken on less importance to me, though I still enjoy it. So, as I looked at my present situation, it seemed more fun to go home and spend some time with Susan, my friends, and my community.
The whole purpose of this trip for me was a pilgrimage to Tibet and when that was interrupted it became an opportunity to view my motivations, interests, and future plans. It was another chance to see where my mind was in the midst of all this. I could "tough it out" and stay until my return ticket or I could choose to do what most appealed to me... and it turned out that comfort, community, family won out.
People go to Rome, Jerusalem, Mecca, Stonehedge, and the Ganges River at Varanasi. There is something of their faith that compels them to want to visit, at least once in there life. Then when the pilgrimage is done, it is time to return. Many people mentioned to me that there would be obstacles in any pilgrimage, as in many endeavors. So the question is, does one push through it or does one take it easy on oneself? There is no easy answer for this... there is no operating manual that says when you make this type of plan you stick to it no-matter-what! (Though some of us have cultural or famalial operating guidelines that tell us to stick to our commitments, "even if it kills you.")
I believe we must take most experiences in life for their individual circumstances and take counsel from people that we trust. But sometimes it comes down to what seems to be in the best interest for oneself and those around you. Sometimes people in leadership positions need to make a hard call and just see what the consequences are. Often we are leading ourselves and needing to make choices. So that is what I have done and chosen to return home. Susan asked if I were to never return to China, would I feel complete. (Good question.) Yes I am complete.
There are three books that come to mind and recommendations for you to read, if you haven't already. The first was an adventure/pilgrimage by Ian Baker to an extremely remote place in the world: where India and Tibet meet. I read this prior to starting this trip. It is a very exciting adventure he describes in The Heart of the World: A Journey to the Last Secret Place. If you like an adventure read, this was good. (I found it at the Corvallis library.) It turns out that.... well I'll leave that for you to read.
The second book is The Forbidden Journey: The Life of Alexandra David-Neel by Foster and Foster. This incredible traveler/adventurer/pilgrim was the first Caucasian woman to visit Lhasa, Tibet. But her story is a much more compelling one than that. She died at 100 in 1969 and remembered the Commune revolts in Paris, her father was a friend of Victor Hugo's, and lived a life much different than what was expected of a woman of her time. If you want an amazing read about a woman who lived life on her own terms, this is a great read. I just finished reading this biography today. There are many books out that she has written, but this is a great overview of her life, including the negative sides.
The third book I read on the flight over here and completed just when I returned to Hong Kong. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time (http://www.threecupsoftea.com/Intro.php) is the tale of Greg Mortenson. He failed on an attempt at climbing the world's second highest mountain and found himself in a Pakistani village that changed his life. This is the tale of his life to bring secular schools to rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. I wish everyone could read this book, it is a truly amazing story of what he has helped to do to help educate (secularly) girls in rural Islamic regions while gaining the support of religious leaders. I can't recommend it enough.
So why have I brought these books up in the midst of my blog? Well, today I have been contemplating whether I've just given up, quit, taken my ball and gone home because the going got a little rough.
For years I denied that I was an adrenalin addict or that I was a high risk taker... even after Susan pointed out my climbing, whitewater boating, fast bike riding, backcountry skiing..... I never saw myself as a big risk taker because I always compared myself to those at the top of the discipline. There were those people like Messner who climbed to the top of the world without oxygen or the people doing first descents or climbing El Capitan without ropes... now, those people were risk takers. It has taken me years to realize that it is unfair to compare myself to them. They were totally committed to that one activity and I was a dabbler, a dabbler in risky pursuits.
Well, all three of the books document people who have lived their lives to an extreme. They have been extreme travelers/pilgrims/adventurers. In years past I would have compared myself to David-Neel and said that I wimped out, that I didn't do this trip to the extremes that she went. I took the easy way out. But life is short and as I stand in my middle-age (I'm about the same age as David-Neel was when she journeyed into Tibet, early 50's) it is a matter of what do I want to hold to? What am I willing to have high stakes around and what not? It does me, nor anyone else any good if I am pursuing some lofty destination only to be miserable while doing it.
I guess that is what we all need to discover in our lives: what will we stand for and what will we yield to? That is a challenge many of us face: choosing our battles wisely and learning to let go those things that no longer matter.
I'll probably make one more entry before I fly over the Pacific this coming week and then another one or two as I transition back to my living in Oregon. In the meantime, be well and take care of yourself out there.... there are a lot of great questions to be answered.
A NOTE: August 25, at our house, I will be showing a rough cut of my slides. If you're reading this and know where we live it is a good assumption that you're a friend. So please stop by at 7 for snacks... the projector will start at 8.
The day the first storm warning was issued I decided to go to Lantau Island (the largest island here and the island where they've built the new airport) and see the world's largest cast bronze seated Buddha. Here is a link for you to see photos. (Wikipedia to the rescue again.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian_Tan_Buddha
Lantau also has 100 km of hiking trails. This is something that not many people appreciate about HK- there is a lot to do outside away from the dense urban environment. I was interested in doing some sea kayaking but found out that a person needs to take a series of courses and get an i.d. that approves you for kayaking, plus a HK i.d. card is needed to rent a kayak... being protective of people's ignorance and lunacy I guess.
Being at the Tian Tan Buddha I was reminded of the diversity of this region. This statue is of a Buddha, around the island are many monasteries, including a Trappist monastery. Throughout HK there are cathedrals, temples, and mosques. According to my friend who teaches here, most of his students are Christians of one type of another. It was an amazing statue to see and there were many, many people on that extremely hot day.
My health is improving, though I've had a bit of a relapse today... maybe being out all day yesterday was a bit too taxing. I spent most of the day shopping throughout Central and in the Tsim Tsa Shui area. I spent the later part of the evening in the Temple St. Market. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Street,_Hong_Kong and http://www.temple.street.hk/)
This place starts to open up at 2 p.m. and closes somewhere between midnight and 2 a.m. It is a bargain hunters dream and almost anything made inexpensively/cheaply in China could probably be found here. There are also plenty of "regular" shops. A friend's brother owns a shop/storefront here: Mandala Arts Trading Co. Bhim, the owner, sells Nepalese, Tibetan, and Indian arts. He has good stuff and is located at 143 Temple St. (That is a plug for a new friend making a living for him and his family.)
Part of the reason for shopping is that I'm returning early to the U.S. on August 16. I've decided that if I'm going to hang out, recovering my energy, that I'd rather do it with my family and friends in Oregon during the summer. I gave some thought to going to Koh Samui (an island) in Thailand, but decided that is for another trip. There are some other things that have crossed my mind too.
Many of us accumulate things in our lives. Our rooms are filled with things of importance, nicknack's, family hand-me-downs, and art/crafts. Occasionally, people go through purges and clean their closet out... only to have some gremlin replace it with other collectibles. I've noticed that for many people in the middle of their lives that the momentum to accumulate starts to wane and I'm at the stage where collecting things seem to be less and less of interest. It doesn't mean that accumulations stop, but it has shifted in importance.
There are other people who collect experiences. My last real alpine climb was in Bolivia and the man I climbed with seemed to have no interest in the aesthetics of the climb, just interested in adding another alpine climb to his lifetime list... not my style or of much interest to me. There are people who collect travel experiences: they have very little material goods but they acquire the experiences of movement. This accumulation is not as easy to see, but in a way, it has a similar quality as the person who accumulates tangible objects. This too has taken on less importance to me, though I still enjoy it. So, as I looked at my present situation, it seemed more fun to go home and spend some time with Susan, my friends, and my community.
The whole purpose of this trip for me was a pilgrimage to Tibet and when that was interrupted it became an opportunity to view my motivations, interests, and future plans. It was another chance to see where my mind was in the midst of all this. I could "tough it out" and stay until my return ticket or I could choose to do what most appealed to me... and it turned out that comfort, community, family won out.
People go to Rome, Jerusalem, Mecca, Stonehedge, and the Ganges River at Varanasi. There is something of their faith that compels them to want to visit, at least once in there life. Then when the pilgrimage is done, it is time to return. Many people mentioned to me that there would be obstacles in any pilgrimage, as in many endeavors. So the question is, does one push through it or does one take it easy on oneself? There is no easy answer for this... there is no operating manual that says when you make this type of plan you stick to it no-matter-what! (Though some of us have cultural or famalial operating guidelines that tell us to stick to our commitments, "even if it kills you.")
I believe we must take most experiences in life for their individual circumstances and take counsel from people that we trust. But sometimes it comes down to what seems to be in the best interest for oneself and those around you. Sometimes people in leadership positions need to make a hard call and just see what the consequences are. Often we are leading ourselves and needing to make choices. So that is what I have done and chosen to return home. Susan asked if I were to never return to China, would I feel complete. (Good question.) Yes I am complete.
There are three books that come to mind and recommendations for you to read, if you haven't already. The first was an adventure/pilgrimage by Ian Baker to an extremely remote place in the world: where India and Tibet meet. I read this prior to starting this trip. It is a very exciting adventure he describes in The Heart of the World: A Journey to the Last Secret Place. If you like an adventure read, this was good. (I found it at the Corvallis library.) It turns out that.... well I'll leave that for you to read.
The second book is The Forbidden Journey: The Life of Alexandra David-Neel by Foster and Foster. This incredible traveler/adventurer/pilgrim was the first Caucasian woman to visit Lhasa, Tibet. But her story is a much more compelling one than that. She died at 100 in 1969 and remembered the Commune revolts in Paris, her father was a friend of Victor Hugo's, and lived a life much different than what was expected of a woman of her time. If you want an amazing read about a woman who lived life on her own terms, this is a great read. I just finished reading this biography today. There are many books out that she has written, but this is a great overview of her life, including the negative sides.
The third book I read on the flight over here and completed just when I returned to Hong Kong. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time (http://www.threecupsoftea.com/Intro.php) is the tale of Greg Mortenson. He failed on an attempt at climbing the world's second highest mountain and found himself in a Pakistani village that changed his life. This is the tale of his life to bring secular schools to rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. I wish everyone could read this book, it is a truly amazing story of what he has helped to do to help educate (secularly) girls in rural Islamic regions while gaining the support of religious leaders. I can't recommend it enough.
So why have I brought these books up in the midst of my blog? Well, today I have been contemplating whether I've just given up, quit, taken my ball and gone home because the going got a little rough.
For years I denied that I was an adrenalin addict or that I was a high risk taker... even after Susan pointed out my climbing, whitewater boating, fast bike riding, backcountry skiing..... I never saw myself as a big risk taker because I always compared myself to those at the top of the discipline. There were those people like Messner who climbed to the top of the world without oxygen or the people doing first descents or climbing El Capitan without ropes... now, those people were risk takers. It has taken me years to realize that it is unfair to compare myself to them. They were totally committed to that one activity and I was a dabbler, a dabbler in risky pursuits.
Well, all three of the books document people who have lived their lives to an extreme. They have been extreme travelers/pilgrims/adventurers. In years past I would have compared myself to David-Neel and said that I wimped out, that I didn't do this trip to the extremes that she went. I took the easy way out. But life is short and as I stand in my middle-age (I'm about the same age as David-Neel was when she journeyed into Tibet, early 50's) it is a matter of what do I want to hold to? What am I willing to have high stakes around and what not? It does me, nor anyone else any good if I am pursuing some lofty destination only to be miserable while doing it.
I guess that is what we all need to discover in our lives: what will we stand for and what will we yield to? That is a challenge many of us face: choosing our battles wisely and learning to let go those things that no longer matter.
I'll probably make one more entry before I fly over the Pacific this coming week and then another one or two as I transition back to my living in Oregon. In the meantime, be well and take care of yourself out there.... there are a lot of great questions to be answered.
A NOTE: August 25, at our house, I will be showing a rough cut of my slides. If you're reading this and know where we live it is a good assumption that you're a friend. So please stop by at 7 for snacks... the projector will start at 8.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Return to Hong Kong
The rains returned to Hong Kong. Thunder, lightning, and torrential rain- all of which are normal for this time of year. However, this year there has been an exceptionally dry July and first part of August. With the return of the rain has come the orchestration of frogs, bullfrogs, insects and the increased hum of hungry mosquitoes. The temperature is low 80's and the humidity in the 70-90% range. The evenings are quite pleasant.
The last you heard from me I was in Chengdu and dealing with upper respiratory stuff and needing to find a place to rest, rather than a hotel room. I've returned to my friends place on Lamma Island- 30 minutes from the hub-bub of shopping rich downtown Hong Kong. It felt much better leaving behind the polluted air of Chengdu to come here. Plus, traveling alone it felt really good coming to a friends home to stay. I shall stay here a bit and rest... trying to get rid of this cough. One thing that a person deals with while traveling is the different diet, language, culture, and the different viruses/bacteria that we aren't used to. We tend to think, we have a cold or infection. But there are different strands, just like there are different cultures that we aren't used to. It is time to heal and travel less intensely. Comfort is nice for these tired bones.
One of the great things about being here is having conversations with people who have years of experience in and around China. They have a more in-depth view of China as compared to my surface view. Since I've had a number of conversations with people about current affairs in China, I'd like to offer some of what I've heard.
Many of us continue to carry residual images of things like the Cultural Revolution, the diaspora in Tibet, or Tiananmen Square and that affects how we see the current China. The strong centralized government that existed in Mao's day or following him and into the Cultural Revolution doesn't exist anymore. Regional and local power brokers have much of the control. Cities like Shanghai, Guangzho, and Shenzhen operate quite independently since they have been so successful with the market economy. It seems that money and power does the talking now.
Within the federal government there is splintering. Here is one example: The Ministry of Health will send out workers to do HIV education to prostitutes. It is illegal in China to assist prostitutes in the plying of their trade. The Department of Public Security will arrest the health workers.
HIV and AIDS is becoming a major issue for China, especially in the rural areas. Prostitution is on the rise because rural-based migrant workers go to the city. In order to get legal jobs, they need papers to work in the urban environment. Since they can't obtain those papers, they must work under the table. (Undocumented workers must deal with the same issues here as in the States. The difference is that these are citizens of the country, they just don't have official permission to be working in a different locale.) One of the jobs they find themselves in is prostitution. Another major cause for the spread of HIV are truck drivers. Prostitution is on the rise and with it are STDs (sexually transmitted diseases)- something that the tightly controlled social scenes of Mao's days didn't have to deal with.
Bottomline: Money talks in the China of today. There is an increasing middle and upper class. An increasing discrepancy between those who have and those who don't. State-run enterprises are falling behind the entrepreneurial system.
Tiananmen Square: I've read in the past and it was reconfirmed, that this incident wasn't about students versus the government. It was about factions within the government battling for dominance and that the students were the pawns. The troops that showed up were not troops from Beijing, but from a rural area. The battalions in Beijing refused orders to go against the students. The rural troops had no riot control training and just went in and handled it very roughly.
Sertar: In an earlier posting I mentioned being denied entry to a monastic community in Eastern Tibet and I said it was a Tibetan. I questioned the rationale behind Tibetans denying entry to Westerners. Well, come to find out that this is a Chinese government initiated action and they are using Tibetans to enforce the "policy". Sometimes the guard is in civilian clothes (like when I was there) and sometimes there is a uniformed guard.
Local control: In the U.S. we have a slogan around living locally. Well, local control is the big thing in China. A lot of the oppressive things that have happened in Tibet are said to have been initiated by local authorities trying to impress Beijing. Is it a federal policy to close borders, make it more difficult for individual travelers to travel, and lock down monastic communities? Is it a local/regional choice by hard-liner bureaucrats? To really know, one needs to follow the trends or be an insider... which I am neither. One view that I have changed since traveling here and talking with people is that there is a lot more local control and less federal control.
One Chinese statement is that the reason for making it more difficult for individual travelers in Tibet is that there isn't much money in it for the government. Individual travelers tend to spend less money than people on tours. That is a very rational perspective. Other's have said that it is because that it is easier to control what tour groups hear and see. I tend to think that it is a mixture of both of those perspectives. People who have followed the decades of struggle of the Tibetan people, culture, and religious community will see demons around every action of the government. People who believe that Tibet was a medieval country lost in the haze of superstition and that treated its people poorly will not see the harm in governmental actions.
Travel from Chengdu to Hong Kong: Airline fares are slightly different in China. I left the hostel without a ticket and went to the airport. The closer to departure, the more airlines will discount their empty seats. I got 10% off my ticket on the day of departure after going to different airlines to compare their prices. Sometimes it can be as much as 20-30%. Costs of domestic flights are cheaper than the U.S. My ticket cost me around 1700Y- which at current exchange (7.5 Y to the dollar) is a little over $200. This flight is a little over 2 hours long, they serve a meal (not a real tasty meal, but it is more than a bag of peanuts), plus beverages. They don't serve coffee.
Another interesting design part to airports: the arrival and departures are on different levels. Even the tunnel one walks in to get onto or off the plane is split. Departures and arrivals do not mix in the terminal.
After I landed in Shenzhen I walked the terminal to the ground transportation site to arrange the hydro-ferry to Hong Kong and then from Kowloon the Star Ferry across to harbor and then to Lamma Island. It was clean and easy. In China the customs was really easy and there were plenty of signs in English to help me on my way.
Finding ones way: As I stood amidst the cacophany of Hong Kong sights and sounds I spotted a sign for the HK MTR (Mass Transit Railway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTR)). It is an incredibly efficient system. I have an Octopus card that allows me to travel on ferries, trains, buses, subway, and even buy something at 7-11. It is a smart card. The whole system is extremely convenient.
Anyway, as I was soaking in all the sights and sounds I saw the symbol for the MTR. It is a sign that is seen often in the city and it leads one to the nearest station. When I first got to the City I didn't know what it meant, but it was always available for me to see. At first I was so overwhelmed by the sounds, congestion, smells, and newness of it all that I couldn't see the sign. It took some education and experience for me to be comfortable in finding the signs. It dawned on me that this is a little bit like life... there are many signs along the way, we just need to find out what we are looking for and to follow them. Sometimes it takes time getting adjusted to ones surroundings, sometimes it takes a friend stepping in and pointing out the obvious, and often it takes education and experience.
I am at a signpost for my journey right now: back in HK long before my return ticket (I didn't plan on getting sick)... what to do? What are the signs for me? I think they are there I just need some time to reorient myself and see them. What about for you?
Catch you on the next episode, as this world continues to turn in it's amazingly rich way.
The last you heard from me I was in Chengdu and dealing with upper respiratory stuff and needing to find a place to rest, rather than a hotel room. I've returned to my friends place on Lamma Island- 30 minutes from the hub-bub of shopping rich downtown Hong Kong. It felt much better leaving behind the polluted air of Chengdu to come here. Plus, traveling alone it felt really good coming to a friends home to stay. I shall stay here a bit and rest... trying to get rid of this cough. One thing that a person deals with while traveling is the different diet, language, culture, and the different viruses/bacteria that we aren't used to. We tend to think, we have a cold or infection. But there are different strands, just like there are different cultures that we aren't used to. It is time to heal and travel less intensely. Comfort is nice for these tired bones.
One of the great things about being here is having conversations with people who have years of experience in and around China. They have a more in-depth view of China as compared to my surface view. Since I've had a number of conversations with people about current affairs in China, I'd like to offer some of what I've heard.
Many of us continue to carry residual images of things like the Cultural Revolution, the diaspora in Tibet, or Tiananmen Square and that affects how we see the current China. The strong centralized government that existed in Mao's day or following him and into the Cultural Revolution doesn't exist anymore. Regional and local power brokers have much of the control. Cities like Shanghai, Guangzho, and Shenzhen operate quite independently since they have been so successful with the market economy. It seems that money and power does the talking now.
Within the federal government there is splintering. Here is one example: The Ministry of Health will send out workers to do HIV education to prostitutes. It is illegal in China to assist prostitutes in the plying of their trade. The Department of Public Security will arrest the health workers.
HIV and AIDS is becoming a major issue for China, especially in the rural areas. Prostitution is on the rise because rural-based migrant workers go to the city. In order to get legal jobs, they need papers to work in the urban environment. Since they can't obtain those papers, they must work under the table. (Undocumented workers must deal with the same issues here as in the States. The difference is that these are citizens of the country, they just don't have official permission to be working in a different locale.) One of the jobs they find themselves in is prostitution. Another major cause for the spread of HIV are truck drivers. Prostitution is on the rise and with it are STDs (sexually transmitted diseases)- something that the tightly controlled social scenes of Mao's days didn't have to deal with.
Bottomline: Money talks in the China of today. There is an increasing middle and upper class. An increasing discrepancy between those who have and those who don't. State-run enterprises are falling behind the entrepreneurial system.
Tiananmen Square: I've read in the past and it was reconfirmed, that this incident wasn't about students versus the government. It was about factions within the government battling for dominance and that the students were the pawns. The troops that showed up were not troops from Beijing, but from a rural area. The battalions in Beijing refused orders to go against the students. The rural troops had no riot control training and just went in and handled it very roughly.
Sertar: In an earlier posting I mentioned being denied entry to a monastic community in Eastern Tibet and I said it was a Tibetan. I questioned the rationale behind Tibetans denying entry to Westerners. Well, come to find out that this is a Chinese government initiated action and they are using Tibetans to enforce the "policy". Sometimes the guard is in civilian clothes (like when I was there) and sometimes there is a uniformed guard.
Local control: In the U.S. we have a slogan around living locally. Well, local control is the big thing in China. A lot of the oppressive things that have happened in Tibet are said to have been initiated by local authorities trying to impress Beijing. Is it a federal policy to close borders, make it more difficult for individual travelers to travel, and lock down monastic communities? Is it a local/regional choice by hard-liner bureaucrats? To really know, one needs to follow the trends or be an insider... which I am neither. One view that I have changed since traveling here and talking with people is that there is a lot more local control and less federal control.
One Chinese statement is that the reason for making it more difficult for individual travelers in Tibet is that there isn't much money in it for the government. Individual travelers tend to spend less money than people on tours. That is a very rational perspective. Other's have said that it is because that it is easier to control what tour groups hear and see. I tend to think that it is a mixture of both of those perspectives. People who have followed the decades of struggle of the Tibetan people, culture, and religious community will see demons around every action of the government. People who believe that Tibet was a medieval country lost in the haze of superstition and that treated its people poorly will not see the harm in governmental actions.
Travel from Chengdu to Hong Kong: Airline fares are slightly different in China. I left the hostel without a ticket and went to the airport. The closer to departure, the more airlines will discount their empty seats. I got 10% off my ticket on the day of departure after going to different airlines to compare their prices. Sometimes it can be as much as 20-30%. Costs of domestic flights are cheaper than the U.S. My ticket cost me around 1700Y- which at current exchange (7.5 Y to the dollar) is a little over $200. This flight is a little over 2 hours long, they serve a meal (not a real tasty meal, but it is more than a bag of peanuts), plus beverages. They don't serve coffee.
Another interesting design part to airports: the arrival and departures are on different levels. Even the tunnel one walks in to get onto or off the plane is split. Departures and arrivals do not mix in the terminal.
After I landed in Shenzhen I walked the terminal to the ground transportation site to arrange the hydro-ferry to Hong Kong and then from Kowloon the Star Ferry across to harbor and then to Lamma Island. It was clean and easy. In China the customs was really easy and there were plenty of signs in English to help me on my way.
Finding ones way: As I stood amidst the cacophany of Hong Kong sights and sounds I spotted a sign for the HK MTR (Mass Transit Railway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTR)). It is an incredibly efficient system. I have an Octopus card that allows me to travel on ferries, trains, buses, subway, and even buy something at 7-11. It is a smart card. The whole system is extremely convenient.
Anyway, as I was soaking in all the sights and sounds I saw the symbol for the MTR. It is a sign that is seen often in the city and it leads one to the nearest station. When I first got to the City I didn't know what it meant, but it was always available for me to see. At first I was so overwhelmed by the sounds, congestion, smells, and newness of it all that I couldn't see the sign. It took some education and experience for me to be comfortable in finding the signs. It dawned on me that this is a little bit like life... there are many signs along the way, we just need to find out what we are looking for and to follow them. Sometimes it takes time getting adjusted to ones surroundings, sometimes it takes a friend stepping in and pointing out the obvious, and often it takes education and experience.
I am at a signpost for my journey right now: back in HK long before my return ticket (I didn't plan on getting sick)... what to do? What are the signs for me? I think they are there I just need some time to reorient myself and see them. What about for you?
Catch you on the next episode, as this world continues to turn in it's amazingly rich way.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
On Pandas, Poetry and the Tao
Yesterday I spent the morning touring the Panda Breeding Center with two other people from the hostel: a Frenchwoman studying Chinese and who spoke good English and a Korean, also studying Chinese here and not very fluent in English. However, his English is a million times better than my Chinese of Korean. Thanks to both of them we were able to time it perfectly to see the pandat eating. It is quite the trip to see dozens of people from around the world getting their kicks off watching a black and white teddy bear eat bamboo. The more noise it made, the happier the crowd was.
The breeding park has been successful in doing something not achieved elsewhere in the world: having twins successful be birthed and live. There are now three baby pandas in the incubators or with their mothers.
Like so many animals in the world, they are threatened by habitat destruction and a die-off of some of their favorite bamboo. It really speaks to the problem of being too specialized. These cute animals are faced with a specialed diet in a world that is needing their land. The Chinese have set aside large tracts of land to protect them and hopefully this will allow them to rebound. There is no place in the world that these bears are found.
One thing that made me chuckle was that a lot of the quotes that are spread throughout the park are from American naturalists like Muir. It speaks to one of the exports that the United States has brought: setasides of natural lands for future generations and the protection of animals.
Today I visited a site dedicated to one of China's main poets who lived in the 700's: Dufu. (People did chuckle when my pronounciation of the site meant I wanted to see Tofu's site....:-)
Here is a link to some of this poetry. I'd never heard of him, but can now see how powerful his poetry has been for different generations of Chinese. I don't know what influence he had on future generations, but his poetry really points to the inequities between the haves and have nots. http://www.chinapage.org/poet-e/dufu2e.html
The Dufu Thatched Cottage park is a mixture of park, history, archaeology, and gift shops. It was raining lightly throughout my whole visit and gave it all a light wash. It was quite pretty and I'd recommend a visit if you ever make it here. I did take a long break at one of their tea houses. They had a gazillion teas: green, Chrysanthemum, jasmine. I had a green tea. They place the loose tea in a cup, fill the cup a third of the way with very hot water, then cover it.... then they leave. What to do next? I drank it and soon found out by watching that they drink the tea while holding the saucer... I never did figure out what to do with all the loose tea that I kept pulling our of my mouth. Eventually they all settled to the bottom.
One of the volunteers here helped plan my itinerary for the day and even helped with telling me which buses to take: the buses cost 1yuan. At an exchange rate of 7 yuan to the dollar, it isn't very expensive to ride a bus here. As long as you don't get turned around... which is what happen to me this afternoon/evening as I returned from another park. This is such a big city (somewhere between 4-7 million) and my map is so small that I wasn't sure where I was, so instead of taking the bus I took a taxi... still pretty inexpensive and it turned out that I was only 5 minutes from the hostel!
The tao part of the story is my visit to the Taoist temple. It is a very large complex with many people visiting and practicing/praying/making offerings. The priests conducted a ceremony/service. There were young and old offering incense and candles wile praying and and bowing. Some of the statues are over 30 feet high and well preserved. Here is a link to information about the taoist temple: http://www.impression.org.cn/?action-viewthread-tid-811
It appears that people are returning to openly practicing a religion that has been a part of this country for many centuries, just like what seemed evident in the western reaches of Sichuan, where Buddhism is openly and very actively practiced. It is a land of contrasts. Whereas most people try to fit things into either/or boxes: China has a blend of a market economy with a strong centralized goverment, active communist party, with people practicing traditional religions. It doesn't fit into any easy category. Maybe it is just what it is and our attempts to try to fit it into a box will only continue to meet with misunderstanding.
During my walk through the taoist temple I walked by a door and there was a woman playing a traditional Chinese stringed instrument. They invited me in and I listened to her play for a while. I captured that on a recording and it was beautiful. Just outside there was a 60ish woman singing a traditional Chinese style of song while young people wandered with MP3 players in their pockets and bowing in a temple of antiquity. Just like yesterday when I was having a cup of coffee at Starbucks at the edge of a 1200 year old monument/park with buses going by with billboards for KFC and Wal-Mart.
Traveling expands our thinking and our hearts if we let it. We can try to fit everything into OUR neat little boxes or we can choose to use it as a form of meditation in action. Everything is changing right before our eyes. But that is the same way things are in our daily life, it just seems more static because of our habits. This trip has helped to rearrange my worldview, once again. There are many ways to travel and the way that I prefer is to go to a place and be there for a while. I don't like, nor do I do well when I am constantly on the move... which is probably why this upper respiratory virus hangs on- something that I'm about to resolve by settling into a place for a while.
Catch you on another episode.
The breeding park has been successful in doing something not achieved elsewhere in the world: having twins successful be birthed and live. There are now three baby pandas in the incubators or with their mothers.
Like so many animals in the world, they are threatened by habitat destruction and a die-off of some of their favorite bamboo. It really speaks to the problem of being too specialized. These cute animals are faced with a specialed diet in a world that is needing their land. The Chinese have set aside large tracts of land to protect them and hopefully this will allow them to rebound. There is no place in the world that these bears are found.
One thing that made me chuckle was that a lot of the quotes that are spread throughout the park are from American naturalists like Muir. It speaks to one of the exports that the United States has brought: setasides of natural lands for future generations and the protection of animals.
Today I visited a site dedicated to one of China's main poets who lived in the 700's: Dufu. (People did chuckle when my pronounciation of the site meant I wanted to see Tofu's site....:-)
Here is a link to some of this poetry. I'd never heard of him, but can now see how powerful his poetry has been for different generations of Chinese. I don't know what influence he had on future generations, but his poetry really points to the inequities between the haves and have nots. http://www.chinapage.org/poet-e/dufu2e.html
The Dufu Thatched Cottage park is a mixture of park, history, archaeology, and gift shops. It was raining lightly throughout my whole visit and gave it all a light wash. It was quite pretty and I'd recommend a visit if you ever make it here. I did take a long break at one of their tea houses. They had a gazillion teas: green, Chrysanthemum, jasmine. I had a green tea. They place the loose tea in a cup, fill the cup a third of the way with very hot water, then cover it.... then they leave. What to do next? I drank it and soon found out by watching that they drink the tea while holding the saucer... I never did figure out what to do with all the loose tea that I kept pulling our of my mouth. Eventually they all settled to the bottom.
One of the volunteers here helped plan my itinerary for the day and even helped with telling me which buses to take: the buses cost 1yuan. At an exchange rate of 7 yuan to the dollar, it isn't very expensive to ride a bus here. As long as you don't get turned around... which is what happen to me this afternoon/evening as I returned from another park. This is such a big city (somewhere between 4-7 million) and my map is so small that I wasn't sure where I was, so instead of taking the bus I took a taxi... still pretty inexpensive and it turned out that I was only 5 minutes from the hostel!
The tao part of the story is my visit to the Taoist temple. It is a very large complex with many people visiting and practicing/praying/making offerings. The priests conducted a ceremony/service. There were young and old offering incense and candles wile praying and and bowing. Some of the statues are over 30 feet high and well preserved. Here is a link to information about the taoist temple: http://www.impression.org.cn/?action-viewthread-tid-811
It appears that people are returning to openly practicing a religion that has been a part of this country for many centuries, just like what seemed evident in the western reaches of Sichuan, where Buddhism is openly and very actively practiced. It is a land of contrasts. Whereas most people try to fit things into either/or boxes: China has a blend of a market economy with a strong centralized goverment, active communist party, with people practicing traditional religions. It doesn't fit into any easy category. Maybe it is just what it is and our attempts to try to fit it into a box will only continue to meet with misunderstanding.
During my walk through the taoist temple I walked by a door and there was a woman playing a traditional Chinese stringed instrument. They invited me in and I listened to her play for a while. I captured that on a recording and it was beautiful. Just outside there was a 60ish woman singing a traditional Chinese style of song while young people wandered with MP3 players in their pockets and bowing in a temple of antiquity. Just like yesterday when I was having a cup of coffee at Starbucks at the edge of a 1200 year old monument/park with buses going by with billboards for KFC and Wal-Mart.
Traveling expands our thinking and our hearts if we let it. We can try to fit everything into OUR neat little boxes or we can choose to use it as a form of meditation in action. Everything is changing right before our eyes. But that is the same way things are in our daily life, it just seems more static because of our habits. This trip has helped to rearrange my worldview, once again. There are many ways to travel and the way that I prefer is to go to a place and be there for a while. I don't like, nor do I do well when I am constantly on the move... which is probably why this upper respiratory virus hangs on- something that I'm about to resolve by settling into a place for a while.
Catch you on another episode.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Stewing in Chengdu
So tonight I had my second hot pot dinner. Sichuan is the home of very spicy food and it is inevitably served family style, which means that everyone is diving in. Well, tonight I went into a restaurant that I had no idea what they served. In the middle of the table is a sunken burner, they bring in a wok-like vessel, which a person puts things into. It is like ordering from a sushi/sashimi list. Then each of the items is put on a plate and it is put into this "hot pot". I was given the choice of spicy, spicy, or three flavors. Most of the food has been no problem for me but I decided to not push it tonight. I ordered 8 items to go in the pot with a beverage. This proved to be too much for me to eat and it cost about $9, which is pretty expensive dinner compared my usual meals. One of the proteins that I ordered was a carp... I didn't know it was going to come whole. I sure hope it wasn't alive when they put it in there. Confession time: I got full before I could taste it or maybe I just ate around it. You figure it out. So, this is a stew Sichuan style.
The weather has also been stewing with the thuderstorms sans rain. It is very muggy.
For those of you who are trying to decide where you will stay the next time you come to Chengdu I'll give you a report comparing the four places that I've stayed at here. I have much prefered the hostels to the two hotels. Hostels are a place where people from all over the world come together and they expect to interact with other nationalities. This is in contrast to the hotels where people are isloated in their own world. The customer service has been much better at the hostels and they have had people with decent English skills. The hostels (Holly's and Dreams International) have individual rooms with showers or one can get a dorm room. My individual rooms have cost between $20-25 per night. This comes with as much Chinese television that I want (one English channel and the Chinese version of ESPN), telephone, bed... just like any motel. Holly's seems to have more non-Chinese whereas Dreams has more Chinese in it these last few days. Holly's cafe is much better and they don't charge for internet use. Dreams is newer and more modern, plus it costs a few dollars more.
My very first night here I stayed at the Kangding... and it is the worst of the four. I wanted a single- they said that foreigners couldn't stay in that building. I said I wanted a double, same story. I had to get a deluxe suite. I was so tired I said yes. Event that room only cost around $35. The fourth place was the Golden Ox- which is where the Chinese group stayed at the end of the tour. It was in a resort complex and was very well staffed. Don't know the price, but it was okay compared to U.S. resort standards... but maybe it is because I didn't speak the language to make use of the services.
A few things to think about:
- Today there was a report on the t.v. about the Chinese first future's market opening up. That means there is more disposable income, which means income levels are rising. Which means a larger middle class and greater consumption. There are 1.3 billion people here and other than skin color and language there is a lot of similarity between the youth cultures. Two exceptions: I haven't seen a tattoo or body piercing yet. Also, I've yet to see an obese child.
- KFC, McDonalds, WalMart... all have a presence here.
- The pride that the Chinese hold about hosting the Olympics next year very evident. Even in the reaches of E. Tibet there were street banners celebrating the coming Olympics. It is on buses, Coke cans, commercials, and in people's thoughts. They have a real pride at there rising prominance in the world. If you consider the material progress they have made in the last 40 years it is pretty remarkable.
- Sitting in Starbucks today within one of the historic districts today and I wondered whether the Chinese will ever make the shift to a coffee culture? I was also paging through some Chinese fashion and sports magazines that were laying around. There were some quotes in English, but the person being quoted was in Chinese. There was a picture of Prefontaine running. I'll close with one of the quotes that I can attribute: Success is never permanent and failure is never final. Mike Ditka
The weather has also been stewing with the thuderstorms sans rain. It is very muggy.
For those of you who are trying to decide where you will stay the next time you come to Chengdu I'll give you a report comparing the four places that I've stayed at here. I have much prefered the hostels to the two hotels. Hostels are a place where people from all over the world come together and they expect to interact with other nationalities. This is in contrast to the hotels where people are isloated in their own world. The customer service has been much better at the hostels and they have had people with decent English skills. The hostels (Holly's and Dreams International) have individual rooms with showers or one can get a dorm room. My individual rooms have cost between $20-25 per night. This comes with as much Chinese television that I want (one English channel and the Chinese version of ESPN), telephone, bed... just like any motel. Holly's seems to have more non-Chinese whereas Dreams has more Chinese in it these last few days. Holly's cafe is much better and they don't charge for internet use. Dreams is newer and more modern, plus it costs a few dollars more.
My very first night here I stayed at the Kangding... and it is the worst of the four. I wanted a single- they said that foreigners couldn't stay in that building. I said I wanted a double, same story. I had to get a deluxe suite. I was so tired I said yes. Event that room only cost around $35. The fourth place was the Golden Ox- which is where the Chinese group stayed at the end of the tour. It was in a resort complex and was very well staffed. Don't know the price, but it was okay compared to U.S. resort standards... but maybe it is because I didn't speak the language to make use of the services.
A few things to think about:
- Today there was a report on the t.v. about the Chinese first future's market opening up. That means there is more disposable income, which means income levels are rising. Which means a larger middle class and greater consumption. There are 1.3 billion people here and other than skin color and language there is a lot of similarity between the youth cultures. Two exceptions: I haven't seen a tattoo or body piercing yet. Also, I've yet to see an obese child.
- KFC, McDonalds, WalMart... all have a presence here.
- The pride that the Chinese hold about hosting the Olympics next year very evident. Even in the reaches of E. Tibet there were street banners celebrating the coming Olympics. It is on buses, Coke cans, commercials, and in people's thoughts. They have a real pride at there rising prominance in the world. If you consider the material progress they have made in the last 40 years it is pretty remarkable.
- Sitting in Starbucks today within one of the historic districts today and I wondered whether the Chinese will ever make the shift to a coffee culture? I was also paging through some Chinese fashion and sports magazines that were laying around. There were some quotes in English, but the person being quoted was in Chinese. There was a picture of Prefontaine running. I'll close with one of the quotes that I can attribute: Success is never permanent and failure is never final. Mike Ditka
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Launched in Tibet
Now you'd probably expect me to say I was launcing off to Tibet or heading into Tibet... but the reality is that I'm back in Chengdu after an amazing 10 day journey into the Tibetan cultural area. First, we need to distinction between the Tibetan socio-cultural region and the current geo-political boundaries. If I were to make it into the gro-political area it would be refered to as the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). I didn't make it there.
In the last episode I believe (I can't read my past blogs. A Chinese message comes up whenever I try to review my past blogs. So there may be gaps or repetition). I mentioned heading off to find my friends family that lived in a village. After a decent 9 hour bus ride from the planes of China to the mountains, we stopped in the town of Maerkhang (Tib. Barkham) just as the thunderstorm opened up and dumped buckets. This was repeated over the next three days and the rivers turned into muddy brown torrents. There wasn't a person on the bus who spoke English, but two of them invited me into a vehicle to go into the town and helped me find a room. One thing that is unclear to me is whether rooms are filled at hotels or they aren't authorized to take foreign travellers.... after finally finding a place to sleep (3-4 star hotel, costing around $40) I went walking. As I walked past this small shop I heard a person call out, "Hello." I could have kept walking but decided to walk in this shop selling Tibetan wares. I could have believed that he was a merchant trying to get money from a tourist (which he was). Then we started to communicate via a mixture of his few English words and my very view Tibetan words. (The lingua franca is Chinese.) A friend of his was in the room, she called a friend of her's who had just returned from studying for 3 years in Vancouver, B.C. and spoke excellent English. That woman showed up and called a brother of her's... they were cousins of the family I was looking for. That is how many things went on during those ten days.
I wound up staying in a small village near Barkham until my friend's brother showed up. It turns out he is a well-known clergyman with one of the Buddhist schools, Harbin Rinpoche. He showed up with 80 Chinese members of his congregation, plus other monks. He invited me to travel with them on a pilgrimage they were taking to a very distant region. It turns out that this special event that was happening is the very event that prompted me to make plans to travel to Tibet. But since Katok Monastery is so remote (and the Monlam only occurs once every four years), I'd given up on the idea of going there. Now, here it was right in front of me as an opportunity. BUT it meant that I'd have to travel with a very large group of people... around 100 with only a few of them speaking English. The ones who did speak English were from Hong Kong, most of them were from the southern Chinese town of Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong. I decided to go....
Throughout the whole trip people, and the organizers of the trip in particular, didn't quite know what to do with me. It was inevitable that I'd be the last one in the hotel lobby waiting for them to place me; or being the last person placed in the vehicle because they just didn't know what to do with me. I just had to have faith that I'd be taken care of. They were very kind and friendly people to me. Another fabulous lesson in how important it is to be kind to visitors, strangers, and others who are wandering around in this world. If we merely extend a hand, even though we don't share a language, there are incredibly rich experiences possible.
As we headed "in country" I was placed in a Toyota mini-van with my friends mother, her sister-in-law, and a friend. All of them spoke the local Tibetan dialect (Gyarong), but not a lick of English. Sign language kept us going and they always made sure I was taken care of- especially around any food. Sitting in the back in a van that didn't have the best of suspensions was a lesson in challenging travel. (Not as bad as the trip back though when I was sitting in the last row of a 21-person tour bus. THAT was when I was launched in Tibet. There were time when I'd be pitched 2-3 feet up in the air when the bus hit one of millions of bumps and potholes. Then I tried wearing a seatbelt and that was a lesson in pain. Finally, I'd stand in the aisles for hours at a time and using my skiing skills in absorbing bumps.)
The roads in the region were good... for about 10 feet. Many of these roads would have been closed by the Forest Service due to dangerous conditions. Here, tour buses, heavy equipment, motorcycles, cars, and yaks use them... simultaneously. Passing on corners is de rigeur for travel here. They use their horns often. They honk going around corners when passing to let any oncoming traffic know that they are coming at you head on. Given all the rough conditions and dangerous driving I did not see a multiple vehicle accident until we returned to pavement with the road divided by lines. That was 7 days after we started. The wild driving I mentioned in Chengdu is only continued in the mountains and amplified by the very challenging roads.
We had days when we travelled 10-14 hours- bone weary when I rolled into some sort of bed. One night I stayed in the worst room I've ever "rented" (about $4 for the night). I was put up in a room with two of the drivers in a four person dormitory room. Dogs barking, trucks and cars roaring through the night, bars on the one window. It was a gray, darb town enshrouded with clouds and mist. The food was questionable. Only on the return trip did I see how beautiful Garne (Garze) was. This regionally important town on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway has enormous mountains surrounding it and a wonderful river that ribbons it's way through the flat river valley. (The Sichuan-Tibet Highway must have been like what the old Alcan (Trans Alaska-Canadian Highway) was like in the old days. The towns are probably what the frontier towns of old were like to.
When we finally made it to Katok for the three-day festival, I was put up in this tiny three room small house with a bunch of the fellow travellers. We had enough room for our sleeping bags. There were thousands of people there for this event. It is one of the oldest monasteries in Tibet and this particular festival has always drawn thousands of religous followers. I hope you have an opportunity to see some of the images from those days. I will post them on a site when I return to the U.S. and you can see some of the images.
For those of you who know something about the sites in the region (or if you'd like to find them on a map), the places I/we visited were:
-Variocana's cave (near Barkham)
-Tsamne Monastery (near Barkham and rivaling any ornate Catholic Church I've ever seen. There were gold gilded statues, handmade Italian lamps, Brasilian Rosewood trim, Indian marble, a main sanctuary that was enormous: maybe 300 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 3 stories high. It had three floors to it. Truly a sign that things have changed in Tibet, allowing for such a structure to be rebuilt).
-Ganzi
-Baiyul (2 times, the first time I stayed with Harbin Rinpoche and his mother at a family friends house. The first 7 hours of sleep I'd had in a week).
- Sertar. This is the site of a resurgence of Buddhist practice by the deceased teacher Jigme Puntshok. I was denied entrance and waited for three hours outside the gates while the rest of the group went in. I had to reflect on one of the issues that pre-Communist Tibet was criticized for: that they kept themselves isolated from the rest of the world. It would be an interesting conversation to have: why keep a Westerner out? The Chinese are allowed in, but not me. (I also know of many other Westerners who have been denied entry.) It is their culture to preserve and manage as they see fit, but I wonder what it serves to have someone, who is a supporter of their way of life, to be denied entrance.
-Katok Monastery. Had an audience (with an intimate group of 100-250) with the person who leads the community: Moksar Rinpoche. It turns out that the teacher I travelled with committed to supporting the 400+ monastic commuity when the previous teacher, Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche died. It is a huge responsibilty.
-Tagong Monastery( where they have a very large gold Jowo statue). This monastery is a very old one also. Surrounding the inner sanctuary of this Jowo statue is something that reminded me of Leavenworth Washington, or Sisters and Brownsville Oregon. The theme of Tibetan religous community with accompanying shops and daily performances was the focus.
-Kangding. The last stop before returning to Chengdu. This is one of the most amazing physically striking towns one can imagine. Enormous walls of the mountain climbing straight up with a river rushing through the middle of town: it was probably a class 4-5 river at that point. The road drops through hairpin turns for many, many, many miles. The pass was at 5000 meters and the road continues down until hitting the Chinese plains. The longest and most dramatic drop that I've ever experienced. (If I had ever taken the road from the Altiplano in Bolivia to the lower regions it would problably be comparable.) The rivers in this region are numerous and an eco-tourists dream place. There is an increasing middle and upper class and it is only a matter of time before North Face, Columbia and Trek (I did see some people touring the roads) are seen throughout the rock faces and rivers.
Now, here I sit in Chengdu with the reality that the intestinal problems I've had and the upper respiratory problem I'm currently facing may mean that I will need to alter my plans. When I used to climb, there were times when the question faced would be whether to push on and reach a summit or accept that it was time to turnaround. I'm at that point right now. The food has often led to an unstable intestinal state and now my lungs are hacking. Then there was the reality of the difficultness of traveling on the roads in the Tibetan region. A friend of mine, Candy, said it was hard traveling there. I thought she meant mostly the altitude. The height didn't bother me... I acclimated slowly, went high and slept low. Didn't even need to take Diamox. We have no comprehension in the States about how hard it is to travel on these roads and there are people who do it as a part of their daily life.
So, what to do now? All I know is that I'm resting in Chengdu for a few days AND I'm pretty certain that the bus travel into the Tibetan reaches is over for me. Maybe I'll go see the Panda Bears. Until I'm rested and this cough lessens I think the next two days will find me here, at the Dreams Hostel (they have a website and I think my room is actually showed).
One closing thought: people have asked me what the changes are since I was here 26 years ago. One of the main ones is the connectivity. Even in the most remote regions in traveling it seemed that my Chinese companions had access via cell phone. The teenagers were text messaging their friends and the business men were conducting business (in China they have an average of 7-10 days off per year).
Be well and I'll let you know where I'm heading next.
Joseph
In the last episode I believe (I can't read my past blogs. A Chinese message comes up whenever I try to review my past blogs. So there may be gaps or repetition). I mentioned heading off to find my friends family that lived in a village. After a decent 9 hour bus ride from the planes of China to the mountains, we stopped in the town of Maerkhang (Tib. Barkham) just as the thunderstorm opened up and dumped buckets. This was repeated over the next three days and the rivers turned into muddy brown torrents. There wasn't a person on the bus who spoke English, but two of them invited me into a vehicle to go into the town and helped me find a room. One thing that is unclear to me is whether rooms are filled at hotels or they aren't authorized to take foreign travellers.... after finally finding a place to sleep (3-4 star hotel, costing around $40) I went walking. As I walked past this small shop I heard a person call out, "Hello." I could have kept walking but decided to walk in this shop selling Tibetan wares. I could have believed that he was a merchant trying to get money from a tourist (which he was). Then we started to communicate via a mixture of his few English words and my very view Tibetan words. (The lingua franca is Chinese.) A friend of his was in the room, she called a friend of her's who had just returned from studying for 3 years in Vancouver, B.C. and spoke excellent English. That woman showed up and called a brother of her's... they were cousins of the family I was looking for. That is how many things went on during those ten days.
I wound up staying in a small village near Barkham until my friend's brother showed up. It turns out he is a well-known clergyman with one of the Buddhist schools, Harbin Rinpoche. He showed up with 80 Chinese members of his congregation, plus other monks. He invited me to travel with them on a pilgrimage they were taking to a very distant region. It turns out that this special event that was happening is the very event that prompted me to make plans to travel to Tibet. But since Katok Monastery is so remote (and the Monlam only occurs once every four years), I'd given up on the idea of going there. Now, here it was right in front of me as an opportunity. BUT it meant that I'd have to travel with a very large group of people... around 100 with only a few of them speaking English. The ones who did speak English were from Hong Kong, most of them were from the southern Chinese town of Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong. I decided to go....
Throughout the whole trip people, and the organizers of the trip in particular, didn't quite know what to do with me. It was inevitable that I'd be the last one in the hotel lobby waiting for them to place me; or being the last person placed in the vehicle because they just didn't know what to do with me. I just had to have faith that I'd be taken care of. They were very kind and friendly people to me. Another fabulous lesson in how important it is to be kind to visitors, strangers, and others who are wandering around in this world. If we merely extend a hand, even though we don't share a language, there are incredibly rich experiences possible.
As we headed "in country" I was placed in a Toyota mini-van with my friends mother, her sister-in-law, and a friend. All of them spoke the local Tibetan dialect (Gyarong), but not a lick of English. Sign language kept us going and they always made sure I was taken care of- especially around any food. Sitting in the back in a van that didn't have the best of suspensions was a lesson in challenging travel. (Not as bad as the trip back though when I was sitting in the last row of a 21-person tour bus. THAT was when I was launched in Tibet. There were time when I'd be pitched 2-3 feet up in the air when the bus hit one of millions of bumps and potholes. Then I tried wearing a seatbelt and that was a lesson in pain. Finally, I'd stand in the aisles for hours at a time and using my skiing skills in absorbing bumps.)
The roads in the region were good... for about 10 feet. Many of these roads would have been closed by the Forest Service due to dangerous conditions. Here, tour buses, heavy equipment, motorcycles, cars, and yaks use them... simultaneously. Passing on corners is de rigeur for travel here. They use their horns often. They honk going around corners when passing to let any oncoming traffic know that they are coming at you head on. Given all the rough conditions and dangerous driving I did not see a multiple vehicle accident until we returned to pavement with the road divided by lines. That was 7 days after we started. The wild driving I mentioned in Chengdu is only continued in the mountains and amplified by the very challenging roads.
We had days when we travelled 10-14 hours- bone weary when I rolled into some sort of bed. One night I stayed in the worst room I've ever "rented" (about $4 for the night). I was put up in a room with two of the drivers in a four person dormitory room. Dogs barking, trucks and cars roaring through the night, bars on the one window. It was a gray, darb town enshrouded with clouds and mist. The food was questionable. Only on the return trip did I see how beautiful Garne (Garze) was. This regionally important town on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway has enormous mountains surrounding it and a wonderful river that ribbons it's way through the flat river valley. (The Sichuan-Tibet Highway must have been like what the old Alcan (Trans Alaska-Canadian Highway) was like in the old days. The towns are probably what the frontier towns of old were like to.
When we finally made it to Katok for the three-day festival, I was put up in this tiny three room small house with a bunch of the fellow travellers. We had enough room for our sleeping bags. There were thousands of people there for this event. It is one of the oldest monasteries in Tibet and this particular festival has always drawn thousands of religous followers. I hope you have an opportunity to see some of the images from those days. I will post them on a site when I return to the U.S. and you can see some of the images.
For those of you who know something about the sites in the region (or if you'd like to find them on a map), the places I/we visited were:
-Variocana's cave (near Barkham)
-Tsamne Monastery (near Barkham and rivaling any ornate Catholic Church I've ever seen. There were gold gilded statues, handmade Italian lamps, Brasilian Rosewood trim, Indian marble, a main sanctuary that was enormous: maybe 300 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 3 stories high. It had three floors to it. Truly a sign that things have changed in Tibet, allowing for such a structure to be rebuilt).
-Ganzi
-Baiyul (2 times, the first time I stayed with Harbin Rinpoche and his mother at a family friends house. The first 7 hours of sleep I'd had in a week).
- Sertar. This is the site of a resurgence of Buddhist practice by the deceased teacher Jigme Puntshok. I was denied entrance and waited for three hours outside the gates while the rest of the group went in. I had to reflect on one of the issues that pre-Communist Tibet was criticized for: that they kept themselves isolated from the rest of the world. It would be an interesting conversation to have: why keep a Westerner out? The Chinese are allowed in, but not me. (I also know of many other Westerners who have been denied entry.) It is their culture to preserve and manage as they see fit, but I wonder what it serves to have someone, who is a supporter of their way of life, to be denied entrance.
-Katok Monastery. Had an audience (with an intimate group of 100-250) with the person who leads the community: Moksar Rinpoche. It turns out that the teacher I travelled with committed to supporting the 400+ monastic commuity when the previous teacher, Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche died. It is a huge responsibilty.
-Tagong Monastery( where they have a very large gold Jowo statue). This monastery is a very old one also. Surrounding the inner sanctuary of this Jowo statue is something that reminded me of Leavenworth Washington, or Sisters and Brownsville Oregon. The theme of Tibetan religous community with accompanying shops and daily performances was the focus.
-Kangding. The last stop before returning to Chengdu. This is one of the most amazing physically striking towns one can imagine. Enormous walls of the mountain climbing straight up with a river rushing through the middle of town: it was probably a class 4-5 river at that point. The road drops through hairpin turns for many, many, many miles. The pass was at 5000 meters and the road continues down until hitting the Chinese plains. The longest and most dramatic drop that I've ever experienced. (If I had ever taken the road from the Altiplano in Bolivia to the lower regions it would problably be comparable.) The rivers in this region are numerous and an eco-tourists dream place. There is an increasing middle and upper class and it is only a matter of time before North Face, Columbia and Trek (I did see some people touring the roads) are seen throughout the rock faces and rivers.
Now, here I sit in Chengdu with the reality that the intestinal problems I've had and the upper respiratory problem I'm currently facing may mean that I will need to alter my plans. When I used to climb, there were times when the question faced would be whether to push on and reach a summit or accept that it was time to turnaround. I'm at that point right now. The food has often led to an unstable intestinal state and now my lungs are hacking. Then there was the reality of the difficultness of traveling on the roads in the Tibetan region. A friend of mine, Candy, said it was hard traveling there. I thought she meant mostly the altitude. The height didn't bother me... I acclimated slowly, went high and slept low. Didn't even need to take Diamox. We have no comprehension in the States about how hard it is to travel on these roads and there are people who do it as a part of their daily life.
So, what to do now? All I know is that I'm resting in Chengdu for a few days AND I'm pretty certain that the bus travel into the Tibetan reaches is over for me. Maybe I'll go see the Panda Bears. Until I'm rested and this cough lessens I think the next two days will find me here, at the Dreams Hostel (they have a website and I think my room is actually showed).
One closing thought: people have asked me what the changes are since I was here 26 years ago. One of the main ones is the connectivity. Even in the most remote regions in traveling it seemed that my Chinese companions had access via cell phone. The teenagers were text messaging their friends and the business men were conducting business (in China they have an average of 7-10 days off per year).
Be well and I'll let you know where I'm heading next.
Joseph
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Barkham morning
Hi all,
Here I am in the Jiarong Hotel in Barkham. It is officially China, but in historical Tibet. The 10 hour bus ride was nice (other than something I ate that put a little activity into my stomach), beautiful actually. I am finally back in the mountains where the air is clearer, the temperature cooler, and the trees can be seen.
The ride up took me through miles and miles of river valley. These rivers were Class 3-5 and very runnable (from a river running stand point) and there had to be at least a dozen dams that I saw along the way. The Chinese are definitely partly fueling their economy with hydropower.
I was walking along the street of Barkham and this guy calls out "HellO." He is a merchant at one of the stores and I was tempted to pass on since it could be just another come on. (There is a site that shows some pictures of Barkham, but you'll have to find it yourself. I can't read any of the commands in Chinese so it is hard to search the web for links.) But it turned out one of his friends in the store knew someone in town who knew English. She just returned from studying in Vancouver B.C., that led to her brother being the cousin of the family I was looking forward.... which led to a how slew of other connections and travel oppotunities. It doesn't take much time to make connections in this world.
I have to go. Be well and I wonder what kind of new connections you are willing to be open to today? What type of conversation are you willing to have with someone who you thought was "just a merchant trying to get you to buy something."
Don't know when I'll be able to write next... but be well.
Here I am in the Jiarong Hotel in Barkham. It is officially China, but in historical Tibet. The 10 hour bus ride was nice (other than something I ate that put a little activity into my stomach), beautiful actually. I am finally back in the mountains where the air is clearer, the temperature cooler, and the trees can be seen.
The ride up took me through miles and miles of river valley. These rivers were Class 3-5 and very runnable (from a river running stand point) and there had to be at least a dozen dams that I saw along the way. The Chinese are definitely partly fueling their economy with hydropower.
I was walking along the street of Barkham and this guy calls out "HellO." He is a merchant at one of the stores and I was tempted to pass on since it could be just another come on. (There is a site that shows some pictures of Barkham, but you'll have to find it yourself. I can't read any of the commands in Chinese so it is hard to search the web for links.) But it turned out one of his friends in the store knew someone in town who knew English. She just returned from studying in Vancouver B.C., that led to her brother being the cousin of the family I was looking forward.... which led to a how slew of other connections and travel oppotunities. It doesn't take much time to make connections in this world.
I have to go. Be well and I wonder what kind of new connections you are willing to be open to today? What type of conversation are you willing to have with someone who you thought was "just a merchant trying to get you to buy something."
Don't know when I'll be able to write next... but be well.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Chendu dux
Today was an adventure in travel for me. Following the directions I was given I walked for an hour and nothing on the map matched the roads around me. It was a lesson in not seeing what was there, but what I wanted to see. It is amazing what we do with our minds and our lives when we start living it based on what we want to see rather than what is right before our eyes.
First, a note. English is on lots of things here. ATM's... people don't travel with travel cheques because ATMs are so accessible. The messages pop up in English. All road signs are sub-text with English. Many stores have English names on them. When I made the trip in 1981 there was nothing written in English. My how things have changed. Other than a different language and slightly different skin color; the people are the same as in any city. Boys and girls, men and women holding hands... one difference here is seeing boys holding hands with their fathers. Teenagers gaze at each other. Many of the billboards could be in any place in American.
One major difference is the traffic. There are bikes, scooters, cars, buses, rickshaws, motor rickshaws and a lot of motorized bikes, a LOT of them. There is a lane in some places that is just for bikes and motorbikes... occasionally a car coming out of a driveway will drive down it. Then it gets mixed with pedestrians. People do walk here, quite a lot.
After I got tired of walking it became time to flag someone down and get a ride. I started with an older man in a pedal rickshaw. The map I have is in English and Chinese. I pointed it out and he read it and indicated, no.... I thought he couldn't read the map. Then I talked to a man with a motor rickshaw and knew where I wanted to go. He quoted a price and I knew that was way too much (50 Yuan is about $7 and is more than I paid by taxi from the airport). I negotiated a lower price, but not too much really. I get tired of this negotiating for so little. It was a trip being in the this tiny vehicle in the flow of traffic. At the end of the ride I paid him with a bill higher than the rate (lesson #73, pay them with the exact amount you negotiated). he gave me a little back then took off.
The next two rides were in taxis. The mythology in the U.S. of the wild open Wild West is the best that I can do to describe the roadways here. If there are three lanes there might be one of the small vehicles slipping in between. Traffic signals are advisory and they have no compunction at honking their horns. This includes at the police if they get in the way. It was sort of fun to be zipping out of traffice, the taxi barely clearing a bus, zipping through cyclists. One of the remarkable things is to look at the vehicles... they don't have a lot of dents on them or scratches. There is a sixth sense that they seem to operate in. Even when crossing the street a person needs to be totally present in crossing because there is not telling from which direction the next vehicle is coming. There is no past or future, only the present. It is a meditation in being totally present.
The ride from the airport a couple days ago was in a car that floated on its shocks going 100km/h while laying on its horn to get people out of the way. There is something that really tickles me about this. They are cavalier about traffic but they don't seem to threaten each other. I've seen no road rage, mostly patience.
One of the reasons for the trip to the NW of the city was to get my ticket to Barkham for tomorrow morning. I've been told it is about a 12-hour bus ride. Hong Kong has recently implemented a no smoking policy in public places; I'm hoping that this spills over into the ride. It is something getting used to smoking in restaurants again. While standing in line to get my ticket there were people using sign language to help me get my ticket: we shared a view words. I pulled out my translation guide and we figured it out. As far as cost goes: a 12-hour bus ride will cost me about $14.
The last thing I'll post and get off so others can check their emails. I went shopping in the department store for gifts. It is so much easier to have the price on things and not have to negotiate. One can get a cheaper price on the street stalls IF you know the baseline. Otherwise they can charge you twice, thrice the price and I'll never know. It was interesting to be in this Chinese department store where everything looked familiar. It showed me how comforting it is to be in a store where things are familiar. There are rows and prices and things that I know from the picture on them. It is a clear indication of how we become adictted to what is familiar and comfortable. As one who hasn't liked to shop, it is amazing to know that I can find peace, quite, and comfort in something that looks like a department store.
Be well and I'm off to traditional Tibetan country tomorrow and I hope there is a computer to post from. Otherwise, it might be around 45 days before you read anything from me.
Ciao
First, a note. English is on lots of things here. ATM's... people don't travel with travel cheques because ATMs are so accessible. The messages pop up in English. All road signs are sub-text with English. Many stores have English names on them. When I made the trip in 1981 there was nothing written in English. My how things have changed. Other than a different language and slightly different skin color; the people are the same as in any city. Boys and girls, men and women holding hands... one difference here is seeing boys holding hands with their fathers. Teenagers gaze at each other. Many of the billboards could be in any place in American.
One major difference is the traffic. There are bikes, scooters, cars, buses, rickshaws, motor rickshaws and a lot of motorized bikes, a LOT of them. There is a lane in some places that is just for bikes and motorbikes... occasionally a car coming out of a driveway will drive down it. Then it gets mixed with pedestrians. People do walk here, quite a lot.
After I got tired of walking it became time to flag someone down and get a ride. I started with an older man in a pedal rickshaw. The map I have is in English and Chinese. I pointed it out and he read it and indicated, no.... I thought he couldn't read the map. Then I talked to a man with a motor rickshaw and knew where I wanted to go. He quoted a price and I knew that was way too much (50 Yuan is about $7 and is more than I paid by taxi from the airport). I negotiated a lower price, but not too much really. I get tired of this negotiating for so little. It was a trip being in the this tiny vehicle in the flow of traffic. At the end of the ride I paid him with a bill higher than the rate (lesson #73, pay them with the exact amount you negotiated). he gave me a little back then took off.
The next two rides were in taxis. The mythology in the U.S. of the wild open Wild West is the best that I can do to describe the roadways here. If there are three lanes there might be one of the small vehicles slipping in between. Traffic signals are advisory and they have no compunction at honking their horns. This includes at the police if they get in the way. It was sort of fun to be zipping out of traffice, the taxi barely clearing a bus, zipping through cyclists. One of the remarkable things is to look at the vehicles... they don't have a lot of dents on them or scratches. There is a sixth sense that they seem to operate in. Even when crossing the street a person needs to be totally present in crossing because there is not telling from which direction the next vehicle is coming. There is no past or future, only the present. It is a meditation in being totally present.
The ride from the airport a couple days ago was in a car that floated on its shocks going 100km/h while laying on its horn to get people out of the way. There is something that really tickles me about this. They are cavalier about traffic but they don't seem to threaten each other. I've seen no road rage, mostly patience.
One of the reasons for the trip to the NW of the city was to get my ticket to Barkham for tomorrow morning. I've been told it is about a 12-hour bus ride. Hong Kong has recently implemented a no smoking policy in public places; I'm hoping that this spills over into the ride. It is something getting used to smoking in restaurants again. While standing in line to get my ticket there were people using sign language to help me get my ticket: we shared a view words. I pulled out my translation guide and we figured it out. As far as cost goes: a 12-hour bus ride will cost me about $14.
The last thing I'll post and get off so others can check their emails. I went shopping in the department store for gifts. It is so much easier to have the price on things and not have to negotiate. One can get a cheaper price on the street stalls IF you know the baseline. Otherwise they can charge you twice, thrice the price and I'll never know. It was interesting to be in this Chinese department store where everything looked familiar. It showed me how comforting it is to be in a store where things are familiar. There are rows and prices and things that I know from the picture on them. It is a clear indication of how we become adictted to what is familiar and comfortable. As one who hasn't liked to shop, it is amazing to know that I can find peace, quite, and comfort in something that looks like a department store.
Be well and I'm off to traditional Tibetan country tomorrow and I hope there is a computer to post from. Otherwise, it might be around 45 days before you read anything from me.
Ciao
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Chengdu China
Not too long of an entry today folks. I'm at a public internet place and there are people waiting. I arrived here after a trip on a ferry from Hong Kong and then a plane ride. This is definitely a town of grays, browns, humidity, and noise. There is siginficant historical background to the town, but as a modern city it is noisy and polluted.
It is a significant contrast to my hike across Lamma Island (Hong Kong) a couple days ago. The government put through a concrete walkway so families could cross the island. It takes about 45-60 minutes. Lamma Island is a semi/tropical land and it really heats up during the middle of the day. There are beautiful flowers, birds, and a few trees. The banannas were still too green to eat, but then the farmers wouldn't appreciate me picking them.
I also spent a couple of days checking out the neighborhoods in Hong Kong, Kowloon, etc. Like any large city the different neighborhoods have different tenors. Soho is the place where trendy restaurants, yoga studios, and wine bars are growing. I was able to get coffee in the area, which was a nice treat. Hollywood street is filled with antiques and curios. Mong Kok is a chaotic melieu of young shoppers.. TST has a ton of people on the streets trying to sell fake Rolex's. Rodney told me that even the fakes are being sold for $2-4000.
I'm in a hostel called Holley's Hostel (it might have a website.. but it is near the Chengdu Dreams hostel and they have pictures of the area) in the Tibetan quarter of town. I'll be here for a few days and log in a couple entries to let you know a little bit about Chengdu. Last night I was feeling a bit low and went into this Tibetan Restaurant. I only knew it was a restaurant because of the sign.. they had to lead me upstairs and into a room to find the actual restaurant. The waitress and I were trying to communicate about what I wanted... I wound up meeting a Tibetan man who just returned from doing his Master's work in Urban Planning in Norway. Then later, a friend of his joined us and she has been a broadcaster on China National radio... it turned out to be a remarkable meeting and evening that went on for 4-5 hours of drinking sweet Tibetan milk tea at her house watching a wonderful Tibetan music video. This video was a fusion of modern and classical Tibetan music.
A little bit of rain today. Maybe it will drop some of the pollution out. I toured a very old historical site and a couple of university students took me as an opportunity to practice their English. It was really helpful to hear what the exhibits are about. Here is a link: http://www.chengdu.gov.cn/echengdu/tourism/landscape_detail/whc.jsp
I'm reminded that one of the most precious things that we have in life are the people we meet and how we engage them. My new friends that I've met here are wonderful. Amd they have enriched my life in ways that are immeasurable. There are a few beggars here and it reminds me about how precious the life I have. We have a choose in each moment about how we will hold ourselves with the people with whom we meet. Whether it is the people we see everyday or strangers, we have a choice whether to meet them with our heart and mind or to treat them as objects to be avoided or engaged. May you take each breath with full awareness and appreciation of those around you.
I'll probably get one more log in before I head off into Barkham.
Cheers.
It is a significant contrast to my hike across Lamma Island (Hong Kong) a couple days ago. The government put through a concrete walkway so families could cross the island. It takes about 45-60 minutes. Lamma Island is a semi/tropical land and it really heats up during the middle of the day. There are beautiful flowers, birds, and a few trees. The banannas were still too green to eat, but then the farmers wouldn't appreciate me picking them.
I also spent a couple of days checking out the neighborhoods in Hong Kong, Kowloon, etc. Like any large city the different neighborhoods have different tenors. Soho is the place where trendy restaurants, yoga studios, and wine bars are growing. I was able to get coffee in the area, which was a nice treat. Hollywood street is filled with antiques and curios. Mong Kok is a chaotic melieu of young shoppers.. TST has a ton of people on the streets trying to sell fake Rolex's. Rodney told me that even the fakes are being sold for $2-4000.
I'm in a hostel called Holley's Hostel (it might have a website.. but it is near the Chengdu Dreams hostel and they have pictures of the area) in the Tibetan quarter of town. I'll be here for a few days and log in a couple entries to let you know a little bit about Chengdu. Last night I was feeling a bit low and went into this Tibetan Restaurant. I only knew it was a restaurant because of the sign.. they had to lead me upstairs and into a room to find the actual restaurant. The waitress and I were trying to communicate about what I wanted... I wound up meeting a Tibetan man who just returned from doing his Master's work in Urban Planning in Norway. Then later, a friend of his joined us and she has been a broadcaster on China National radio... it turned out to be a remarkable meeting and evening that went on for 4-5 hours of drinking sweet Tibetan milk tea at her house watching a wonderful Tibetan music video. This video was a fusion of modern and classical Tibetan music.
A little bit of rain today. Maybe it will drop some of the pollution out. I toured a very old historical site and a couple of university students took me as an opportunity to practice their English. It was really helpful to hear what the exhibits are about. Here is a link: http://www.chengdu.gov.cn/echengdu/tourism/landscape_detail/whc.jsp
I'm reminded that one of the most precious things that we have in life are the people we meet and how we engage them. My new friends that I've met here are wonderful. Amd they have enriched my life in ways that are immeasurable. There are a few beggars here and it reminds me about how precious the life I have. We have a choose in each moment about how we will hold ourselves with the people with whom we meet. Whether it is the people we see everyday or strangers, we have a choice whether to meet them with our heart and mind or to treat them as objects to be avoided or engaged. May you take each breath with full awareness and appreciation of those around you.
I'll probably get one more log in before I head off into Barkham.
Cheers.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Hong Kong
Just got back from wandering the metropolis of Hong Kong- a shopping mecca for those of you who love to shop. I've been gone about 12 hours and I'm a bit bushed. I've been walking probably 75% of the time. I had coffee at a Starbucks as I looked across the street at a KFC and 7-11 while a Chinese woman read Satanic Verses and talked with an English speaker.
I was going to shop for some photo equipment but after doing more research it seems that the U.S. is still the best place for the type of equipment that I was looking forward. Gone are the days of this being the least expensive option, especially when you consider that there is no U.S. warranty on some of this stuff. Not worth the risk. If you are ever interested there is a great webpage that has been going on for 8 years about this...
The main reason I went into the Central district today was to try and get more than a one month visa. Apparently, that is all that is being issued and they can't do anything for me. They told me to try to do something about it in Chengdu, which means that I may not be successful in getting an additional month on my visa. They said I could try in Chengdu. So, what to do? I can go to Chengdu, Barkham and then back to Chengdu, even go to Lhasa beforehand I guess. I could go to Mardo Tashi Choling for awhile and then go to Chengdu to renew the visa. Another option is to fly back to Hong Kong and get a new visa when this one expires... not an option I prefer. But it is part of the adventure.
When my mother and grandfather used to go to tourist attractions they'd make a beeline for the gift store- first. Even before seeing the attraction. I remember them doing that when we visited Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in Oregon. Well, the highpoint on Hong Kong Island is Victoria Peak and there are 4 levels of shopping before you get to the observatory. The tram was packed with people and it was like a mass of salmon spawning up a fish ladder. At each level a new set of stores would divert people's attention until I reached the top and it seemed only a few people from my tram stayed on.
Another remembrance is that Grand Canyon National Park hired Disney to help manage visitor flow. They did a study about how long people looked at the Canyon and how much time was spent in the stores... the stores won. I can't remember the exact number but I think the visitors stayed an average of 7 minutes on the rim. Well, most of the people atop Victoria Peak didn't stay long. They saw the view, took pictures of each other, and then headed down.
We can choose to focus on the differences or similarities in people. The more I see, the more I see the similarities- no matter the color of skin, language spoken, or currency used. People laugh, cry, argue, hug, smile at babies, and they consume trinkets/doodads/dust catchers... all part of the memory of some occasion. Here are some things for you to look at that I've seen today: The Peak: http://www.thepeak.com.hk/full/en/index.php http://community.webshots.com/album/22663234jVMWAKXKFl Zoological and Botanical gardens: http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/parks/hkzbg/en/index.php A tour through many neighborhoods and this included the worlds longest escalator. If you have ever walked the hills of San Francisco, then you have an idea of what the hillside is like in Hong Kong, except that it is steeper AND they have this amazing escalator that takes you up. The signage isn't all that great in some places, but it was so convenient. I was sweating just taking the moving walkway uphill. http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/attraction/hkwalks/ta_walk_walk1.jhtml Here is one of the many buildings that I wandered through. It is amazing how many walking bridges, escalators, tunnels, and walks through buildings that there are. In the U.S. we don't have signed public passageways that go through commercial buildings quite like this. I imagine there are some extensive ones. Seattle and Spokane have linked buildings, but this was unique. The commercial buildings were meant to be a part of the public movement. http://www.archnewsnow.com/features/Feature23.htm
This Center has a wonderful park right in the heart of the industrial complex: http://beltcollins.com/projects_profile.asp?search=T&id=139
There was a sculpture exhibit celebrating the Olympics and it was only going to be here for 10 days, so my timing was right on. http://www.2009eastasiangames.hk/en/news/news_40.html There is a link to Olympics and Sculpture... you'll be able to see more pictures. Within this park, Hong Kong park, is a pond with lilies, lotus, koi, and a gazillion photographers. It stunned me to suddenly walk into a covey of individual photographers staking out their territory and pretending to not pay attention to what the other photographers were doing. (Maybe they didn't care.) It reminded me of a photography class on assignment. But then I showed up here at a reasonable time of day: 4ish. The light flattens out here quite quickly and there are only a couple of hours on each end of the day when the light is rich. The good news is that it has been clear. I'd been warned about the smog problem, but it has been very nice and relatively clear.
I find myself walking and thinking about this precious human birth, contemplating the ways to use this life and seeing how people live their lives. Staying present and using this as a walking meditation- remembering Rushon and trying to understand my motivations.
The Central/Soho/Midlevel portions of Hong Kong are a study in contrast when comparing it to the place where I am staying with at my friends flat. On Lamma Island, it is quiet village life. I am staying at Yung Shue Wan. The only motorized vehicles are these commercial rigs that about as wide as a big go-cart. Well, there are the backhoes and other industrial sized construction equipment, but they are pretty small compared to what we see in the U.S. No personal cars, motorbikes, or scooters.
Here is a link to some of the happenings on this island. (http://www.lamma.com.hk/)
Lamma Island is reached by ferries from Central Hong Kong. It takes about 20-30 minutes. There is a specialness to unwinding from the busyness to island life. The language may be different but there is still that specialness of letting the sea rock you into a relaxed state. My reference point is from having lived/worked on different islands in Washington State: Whidbey, Orcas and Lummi. It is probably more like people who work in Seattle and commute to Baindrige Island.
This morning I had dim sum for breakfast. They didn't speak much English and I speak no Cantonese. I had some shrimp and chicken filled dumplings after he pointed out some things. One thing I learned: They gave me a bowl, a tea cup, pot of tea, and a small eating bowl and only after watching another person did I learn what that bigger bowl was for: the person walked over to the giant hot pot and filled it with the hot water- they then washed their teacup, chopsticks, and bowl. Sure hope my Hepatitis B shot is strong.
Here are a couple of other sites if you want to see the village and the surrounding area: http://www.hkoutdoors.com/outlying-islands/lamma-island.html
http://www.12hk.com/area/Lamma/What2do_Lamma.shtml
This flat is away from the village, about a 5 minutes walk. Most of it is lit pretty well. But it is when the sidewalks gets dark and the vegetation overhangs the walkway that I remember my first trip to HK in 1981. During the middle of the day I took a walk along a concrete drainage line. As I walked past this tree, a snake dropped down in front of me. People have asked me what kind of snake it was... damned if I know because it was a moment of pure terror. There are cobras, vipers, and biting centipedes, but the crime rate is extremely low. People have told me to not worry about walking anywhere in HK. There are so many movies showing the Triad wars that I think we get a skewed view of what is going on here.
I was having breakfast with a new friend and we watched hundreds of school children get off the ferry and wander into the village and to the beach... with very, very few teachers/chaperones. In the U.S. we'd have a required number of adults helping out. So different.
It is warm and humid here. My clothes stick to my body, my forehead runs with sweat, and I'm clammy most of the time when I'm outside. The people who live here are having the same thing go on for them. They are sweating through their clothes, they are fanning themselves to stay cool. It dawned on me that even though I don't come from a warm very climate (I'm from Oregon), that it was my mental state that was going to cause me more of a problem. We are all humans and we sweat when it gets warm and all I need to do is not complain about it. Sweat happens!
One thing about traveling these days is that I don't carry travellers checks. I brought some U.S. dollars to exchange, but I bought a prepaid Visa travel card. The credit union would not authorize the use of my debit card in HK or China because there has been so much fraud. Once they explained the prepaid Visa, it made sense. However, there are fees. Just like the banks charge fees for exchanging U.S. dollars (the cheapest I have found is $50 HK- which is about $7 U.S.); well the Visa card has it's own feeds: there is a percentage of the withdrawl due to it being a foreign currency; their is the withdrawl fee; then their is the ATM fee. It was much cheaper in the days when I cashed Amex Traveller's checks. We'll see how it goes when I get into mainland China.
BTW- Hong Kong is a part of China, but it has a special designation. It was handed over to the Chinese by the British ten years ago, this year. There were fireworks the night I arrived, and thought I appreciated their thoughtfulness of welcoming me that way, I actually assumed it was part of their continued celebration. You do not need a visa to get into HK- just a passport.
I'm hoping to find a way to post photographs so you can see images of some places that I've been. We'll see if I can get them loaded on a site. I've used Snapfish and a couple others, but I don't like the fact that people have to register,etc. I may load them on Smug Mug. That way if there is an image you like you can order it from them too.
Well, I'll close for the night before my eyes do.
I was going to shop for some photo equipment but after doing more research it seems that the U.S. is still the best place for the type of equipment that I was looking forward. Gone are the days of this being the least expensive option, especially when you consider that there is no U.S. warranty on some of this stuff. Not worth the risk. If you are ever interested there is a great webpage that has been going on for 8 years about this...
The main reason I went into the Central district today was to try and get more than a one month visa. Apparently, that is all that is being issued and they can't do anything for me. They told me to try to do something about it in Chengdu, which means that I may not be successful in getting an additional month on my visa. They said I could try in Chengdu. So, what to do? I can go to Chengdu, Barkham and then back to Chengdu, even go to Lhasa beforehand I guess. I could go to Mardo Tashi Choling for awhile and then go to Chengdu to renew the visa. Another option is to fly back to Hong Kong and get a new visa when this one expires... not an option I prefer. But it is part of the adventure.
When my mother and grandfather used to go to tourist attractions they'd make a beeline for the gift store- first. Even before seeing the attraction. I remember them doing that when we visited Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in Oregon. Well, the highpoint on Hong Kong Island is Victoria Peak and there are 4 levels of shopping before you get to the observatory. The tram was packed with people and it was like a mass of salmon spawning up a fish ladder. At each level a new set of stores would divert people's attention until I reached the top and it seemed only a few people from my tram stayed on.
Another remembrance is that Grand Canyon National Park hired Disney to help manage visitor flow. They did a study about how long people looked at the Canyon and how much time was spent in the stores... the stores won. I can't remember the exact number but I think the visitors stayed an average of 7 minutes on the rim. Well, most of the people atop Victoria Peak didn't stay long. They saw the view, took pictures of each other, and then headed down.
We can choose to focus on the differences or similarities in people. The more I see, the more I see the similarities- no matter the color of skin, language spoken, or currency used. People laugh, cry, argue, hug, smile at babies, and they consume trinkets/doodads/dust catchers... all part of the memory of some occasion. Here are some things for you to look at that I've seen today: The Peak: http://www.thepeak.com.hk/full
This Center has a wonderful park right in the heart of the industrial complex: http://beltcollins.com/projects
There was a sculpture exhibit celebrating the Olympics and it was only going to be here for 10 days, so my timing was right on. http://www.2009eastasiangames
I find myself walking and thinking about this precious human birth, contemplating the ways to use this life and seeing how people live their lives. Staying present and using this as a walking meditation- remembering Rushon and trying to understand my motivations.
The Central/Soho/Midlevel portions of Hong Kong are a study in contrast when comparing it to the place where I am staying with at my friends flat. On Lamma Island, it is quiet village life. I am staying at Yung Shue Wan. The only motorized vehicles are these commercial rigs that about as wide as a big go-cart. Well, there are the backhoes and other industrial sized construction equipment, but they are pretty small compared to what we see in the U.S. No personal cars, motorbikes, or scooters.
Here is a link to some of the happenings on this island. (http://www.lamma.com.hk/)
Lamma Island is reached by ferries from Central Hong Kong. It takes about 20-30 minutes. There is a specialness to unwinding from the busyness to island life. The language may be different but there is still that specialness of letting the sea rock you into a relaxed state. My reference point is from having lived/worked on different islands in Washington State: Whidbey, Orcas and Lummi. It is probably more like people who work in Seattle and commute to Baindrige Island.
This morning I had dim sum for breakfast. They didn't speak much English and I speak no Cantonese. I had some shrimp and chicken filled dumplings after he pointed out some things. One thing I learned: They gave me a bowl, a tea cup, pot of tea, and a small eating bowl and only after watching another person did I learn what that bigger bowl was for: the person walked over to the giant hot pot and filled it with the hot water- they then washed their teacup, chopsticks, and bowl. Sure hope my Hepatitis B shot is strong.
Here are a couple of other sites if you want to see the village and the surrounding area: http://www.hkoutdoors.com/outlying-islands/lamma-island.html
http://www.12hk.com/area/Lamma/What2do_Lamma.shtml
This flat is away from the village, about a 5 minutes walk. Most of it is lit pretty well. But it is when the sidewalks gets dark and the vegetation overhangs the walkway that I remember my first trip to HK in 1981. During the middle of the day I took a walk along a concrete drainage line. As I walked past this tree, a snake dropped down in front of me. People have asked me what kind of snake it was... damned if I know because it was a moment of pure terror. There are cobras, vipers, and biting centipedes, but the crime rate is extremely low. People have told me to not worry about walking anywhere in HK. There are so many movies showing the Triad wars that I think we get a skewed view of what is going on here.
I was having breakfast with a new friend and we watched hundreds of school children get off the ferry and wander into the village and to the beach... with very, very few teachers/chaperones. In the U.S. we'd have a required number of adults helping out. So different.
It is warm and humid here. My clothes stick to my body, my forehead runs with sweat, and I'm clammy most of the time when I'm outside. The people who live here are having the same thing go on for them. They are sweating through their clothes, they are fanning themselves to stay cool. It dawned on me that even though I don't come from a warm very climate (I'm from Oregon), that it was my mental state that was going to cause me more of a problem. We are all humans and we sweat when it gets warm and all I need to do is not complain about it. Sweat happens!
One thing about traveling these days is that I don't carry travellers checks. I brought some U.S. dollars to exchange, but I bought a prepaid Visa travel card. The credit union would not authorize the use of my debit card in HK or China because there has been so much fraud. Once they explained the prepaid Visa, it made sense. However, there are fees. Just like the banks charge fees for exchanging U.S. dollars (the cheapest I have found is $50 HK- which is about $7 U.S.); well the Visa card has it's own feeds: there is a percentage of the withdrawl due to it being a foreign currency; their is the withdrawl fee; then their is the ATM fee. It was much cheaper in the days when I cashed Amex Traveller's checks. We'll see how it goes when I get into mainland China.
BTW- Hong Kong is a part of China, but it has a special designation. It was handed over to the Chinese by the British ten years ago, this year. There were fireworks the night I arrived, and thought I appreciated their thoughtfulness of welcoming me that way, I actually assumed it was part of their continued celebration. You do not need a visa to get into HK- just a passport.
I'm hoping to find a way to post photographs so you can see images of some places that I've been. We'll see if I can get them loaded on a site. I've used Snapfish and a couple others, but I don't like the fact that people have to register,etc. I may load them on Smug Mug. That way if there is an image you like you can order it from them too.
Well, I'll close for the night before my eyes do.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Departure
Leaving on 7/7/07, if one is numerologically influenced, seems to be a good day. Sitting in the LAX (Los Angeles airport) international terminal, I'm reminded of what an amazing world we live in. I know the carbon footprint is expanded every time one of the aviation giants achieve lift-off, but all around me are a variety of languages, dialects, and inflections and is a reminder of the positive side of what high-speed travel has done. It brings us all into a closer knit fabric of humanity. It is such a different world from my first flight across the Pacific Ocean in 1962 on a prop plane: a DC-6. I remember being in a plane for 24 hours and hearing the drone of the props, trying to sleep. My first memory of a plane flight was a seaplane landing outside of Skagway, Alaska in 1959. The world of aviation has come so far and the changes in international cultural exchange are remarkable. I'll leave it up to you to make a value judgement about whether it is a better world now.
I'm off to Hong Kong in a bit and thought that an itinerary would be useful to share. The small print caveat is that all this might be altered based on the winds of change.
7/8-14 (crossing the International Date Line, my land-based Sunday will last only 5 hours) Hong Kong, staying at Rodney's flat on Lamma Island (20 minute ferry ride from Central HK).
7/14- 17; Chengdu. This is in the western Sichuan Province of China. The world knows of it as the region of the Panda Bears. It has long been part of the trade routes that hooked into the Silk Road and the gateway into Tibet.
7/18 take a bus to Barkham (Markang in Chinese). A little political geography here. The boundaries of most countries have fluctuated as the centuries flow on. This region of the world is no different. The country of Tibet is now split into different regions. Lhasa is in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). The part of historical Tibet that I will be visiting is a part of Sichuan Province. Barkham is 390 kilometers NW of Chengdu. It will be a 7-12 hour bus ride to get there. I'm told it lies at about 8000 feet. A friend's family lives in the nearby village of Tsambu. My friends just had a baby and I'll deliver some photos. One of those serendipitous meetings that happened over a year ago that has lead me to take this trip.
I'll spend 3 days here to begin to adjust to the altitude. I'll visit a monastery, Tsamne, and Variotsana's caves. Variotsana was one of the early translators of Buddhism in Tibet. He lived during the reign of King Trisong Detsen (755-797 A.D.). He was exiled in this region at one point of his life.
For more information about Barkham, go to: http://www.tew.org/totar/totar.barkham.html
7/21 or 22 Leave for Aba (bus or rented car/driver). Other spellings of this town are Ngawa, Ngaba. This is about 300 km north of Barkham and NW of Chengdu.
7/23 to Pema Shen (shen is county in Chinese) and then to Mardo Tashi Choling. This is the community/ monastery where I'll stay.
7/23-8/20 Mardo Tashi Choling
8/20 and onward: I plan on a trip to Lhasa. This might be done overland or by going back to Chengdu and flying. I'll visit Samye (first monastery in Tibet) and Chimpu, as well as the sites within Lhasa.
9/12 return to the U.S. from Hong Kong.
Ciao.
I'm off to Hong Kong in a bit and thought that an itinerary would be useful to share. The small print caveat is that all this might be altered based on the winds of change.
7/8-14 (crossing the International Date Line, my land-based Sunday will last only 5 hours) Hong Kong, staying at Rodney's flat on Lamma Island (20 minute ferry ride from Central HK).
7/14- 17; Chengdu. This is in the western Sichuan Province of China. The world knows of it as the region of the Panda Bears. It has long been part of the trade routes that hooked into the Silk Road and the gateway into Tibet.
7/18 take a bus to Barkham (Markang in Chinese). A little political geography here. The boundaries of most countries have fluctuated as the centuries flow on. This region of the world is no different. The country of Tibet is now split into different regions. Lhasa is in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). The part of historical Tibet that I will be visiting is a part of Sichuan Province. Barkham is 390 kilometers NW of Chengdu. It will be a 7-12 hour bus ride to get there. I'm told it lies at about 8000 feet. A friend's family lives in the nearby village of Tsambu. My friends just had a baby and I'll deliver some photos. One of those serendipitous meetings that happened over a year ago that has lead me to take this trip.
I'll spend 3 days here to begin to adjust to the altitude. I'll visit a monastery, Tsamne, and Variotsana's caves. Variotsana was one of the early translators of Buddhism in Tibet. He lived during the reign of King Trisong Detsen (755-797 A.D.). He was exiled in this region at one point of his life.
For more information about Barkham, go to: http://www.tew.org/totar/totar.barkham.html
7/21 or 22 Leave for Aba (bus or rented car/driver). Other spellings of this town are Ngawa, Ngaba. This is about 300 km north of Barkham and NW of Chengdu.
7/23 to Pema Shen (shen is county in Chinese) and then to Mardo Tashi Choling. This is the community/ monastery where I'll stay.
7/23-8/20 Mardo Tashi Choling
8/20 and onward: I plan on a trip to Lhasa. This might be done overland or by going back to Chengdu and flying. I'll visit Samye (first monastery in Tibet) and Chimpu, as well as the sites within Lhasa.
9/12 return to the U.S. from Hong Kong.
Ciao.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
The Beginning
A trip to Tibet begins long before the steps are taken to board the plane. The genesis of any trip is lodged in the nexus of past experiences and curiosities. On the surface level it is sitting down to figure out which pants, shirts, and medicines to take or which roads/buses/planes to take. For me this journey began 25 years ago when I entered a Chinese public security station and asked for permission to travel into Tibet. This VERY serious man looked at me like I was non-existent and asking a very stupid question. Needless to say, my request was turned down. I returned to the streets of staring eyes of the people in Kunming, Yunnan Province. In the Fall of 1981 there had been extremely few independent travellers allowed to travel in China and the cloak of secrecy into Tibet was still a stranglehold as the last vestiges of the Cultural Revolution unraveled.
This will be one of the few references that I will make to the political situation in China and Tibet. First, the Chinese censor the cyberspace and I run the risk of not being able to post during my travels if I refer to politics or even mention certain names. Secondly, for me this isn't a political science trip. It is a journey, a pilgrimage into a land of antiquity and modernity that is not capable of being duplicated in too many other places in the world.
The history of Tibet has been documented in many places. If you'd like to see a film that captures the situation I recommend to you Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion. It isn't an easy documentary to watch, but it is a very powerful one.
It is still three days before my departure and I'm still trying to figure out buses and car/driver rentals. It is cheap to travel on a bus for a day from Chengdu to the town of Barkham (Markham on some maps); it costs around $10US for the trip and I'm told there are non-smoking buses. But if I choose the comfort of hiring a four-wheel vehicle and driver the cost is around $100 US per day. More choices.
I'm also taking a trial run at packing tonight. One thing that it's been recommended that I load up with is Clif Bars for those days when the food isn't too palatable AND because the Tibetans love them (great gifts). It is one of the few things that are cheaper in the U.S. I was going to buy a few extra things and then it dawned on me that I'm going to the land that makes most of the things I wanted and that Hong Kong will be cheaper to buy these things than here.
I'm so used to having all these conveniences around me and here I am trying to fit most of what I want into my backpack for 2 months. The last time I tried this (besides my 28 day trips in the wilderness with Outward Bound) was a quarter century ago. I'll keep you informed as to how it goes.
This will be one of the few references that I will make to the political situation in China and Tibet. First, the Chinese censor the cyberspace and I run the risk of not being able to post during my travels if I refer to politics or even mention certain names. Secondly, for me this isn't a political science trip. It is a journey, a pilgrimage into a land of antiquity and modernity that is not capable of being duplicated in too many other places in the world.
The history of Tibet has been documented in many places. If you'd like to see a film that captures the situation I recommend to you Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion. It isn't an easy documentary to watch, but it is a very powerful one.
It is still three days before my departure and I'm still trying to figure out buses and car/driver rentals. It is cheap to travel on a bus for a day from Chengdu to the town of Barkham (Markham on some maps); it costs around $10US for the trip and I'm told there are non-smoking buses. But if I choose the comfort of hiring a four-wheel vehicle and driver the cost is around $100 US per day. More choices.
I'm also taking a trial run at packing tonight. One thing that it's been recommended that I load up with is Clif Bars for those days when the food isn't too palatable AND because the Tibetans love them (great gifts). It is one of the few things that are cheaper in the U.S. I was going to buy a few extra things and then it dawned on me that I'm going to the land that makes most of the things I wanted and that Hong Kong will be cheaper to buy these things than here.
I'm so used to having all these conveniences around me and here I am trying to fit most of what I want into my backpack for 2 months. The last time I tried this (besides my 28 day trips in the wilderness with Outward Bound) was a quarter century ago. I'll keep you informed as to how it goes.
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