Sanmenxia - 3 door gorge - 三门峽

Sanmenxia is the city where we worked in the orphanage. We were very delighted to find that it is a less humid, less hot, and less polluted city than much of China. When asked at the end of the trip by my Chinese colleague who had invited me on the trip which city was my favorite I told her that I enjoyed each city for different reasons. I enjoyed Sanmenxia because I felt like I got to get to know people there, see what normal (not tourist) life was like, and the people were so friendly and nice to each other and to us. Sanmenxia had a small town feel where people still felt connected to each other. At 6,000 people it is considered a small city by Chinese standards.

As I've stated before, the orphanage work was very intense. Intense because of the long hours and intense because of the wide range of strong emotions. The orphanage has requested confidentiality standards not dissimilar to what my employers in the States require so I can't show any pictures of our work there. Our work consisted of a needs assessment, training through treatment, and formal trainings. Our main focus was to bring more activities into the daily routines of the kids in order to foster development (cognitive, motor, etc).

We also had a bit of time to tour in Sanmenxia.

One morning I needed to go to the store before we went to the orphanage but found that it was not open so I took a walk up to a pagoda park not far from our hotel.

View of the pagoda from below

Detail of dragon at the gate

Looking back at the city from the pagoda

Marching drum group at Grand Opening celebration. I was talking to someone in broken Chinese & English while I was watching the drummers. He kept asking me, “What is this"?” and then he would say “beautiful”. I finally realized that he was asking me if I thought the music was beautiful. I was glad to finally be able to answer his question in the affirmative. He also kept saying “Kung Fu” and Chinese Boxing. I never could figure out why he was telling me that other than that he did Kung Fu =).

Sanmenxia has a city square that seems to be more in a downtown area. It was much busier than the area of town we were in. It was a lot of fun and I took several videos of the people doing group dancing and of a man doing Chinese calligraphy with water.

Just after I took this video one of the dance groups finished and a HUGE mass of people came toward me. I was about 15 feet from the rest of my group but it took a great effort to maneuver through all those people walking between us!

I loved this mural. It was right by one of the grocery stores that I frequented. I love the motorcycles parked beneath it, the Great Wall at the base, and the cuteness of it because the Chinese people love cute =).

One of the blue sky days in China. They were more common in Sanmenxia but uncommon in general.

We often drew a crowd wherever we went. In Sanmenxia Westerners are uncommon so the people were often interested to check out what we were like. The therapist from Taiwan shared a story with me of her American friend who taught English in Taiwan for seven years and a big part of why she enjoyed it there was because she was treated so special. I have to admit the attention was fun most of the time. It was the closest I will get to being famous =)

This is a radish sliced and formed into a flower. The food was always presented very decoratively. It is my understanding that this is more true in Henan province than in all of China in general.

Another unique feature of the area around Sanmenxia is that the land is made of a very fine mud. Because of this it is very easy to dig into the earth and build structures. The orphanage director took us to a tourist spot outside of town where there were many houses/rooms built underground.

The stairway into the underground houses.

Looking down into the underground houses from ground level.

Detail of a window at the underground houses.

The Yellow River also runs through Sanmenxia. There are two major rivers in China, the Yellow River being one of these. The Yellow River is of significance to Chinese people because it is a place from which their ancestors come from. They made the an analogy of these people being similar to an ancient native culture such as the Mayans. So being able to go to the Yellow River is like being able to go back to your roots.

We were trying to capture ourselves mid jump but never managed. It was funny all the same.

I was being posed for this picture by the office manager at the orphanage. She didn’t speak any English but told me through a blend of pantomime and translation to hug the Yellow River, so I did.

This was another pose I was told to do. Again, I have no idea why but it was fun =)

This is at the Dragon Boat celebration we did with the orphanage. I am making a sticky rice wrap with a date in it. There was a man who jumped in the river because he loved his country and it had been taken over by someone. The people made these sticky rice treats and threw them into the river so that the fish would not eat this man. So now as part of the Dragon Boat festival they make these treats. The necklaces around my neck are also part of the festival. They have sage inside which is believed to keep away demons and people that turn into animals. Another part of the Dragon Boat festival has something to do with a woman who turned into a White Snake. I never understood this part but we made these necklaces too. In the last part of the celebration, we made origami type lanterns that we then took down to the Yellow River canal (along with many of the kids from the orphanage) and put in the river and watched them float down. It was really fun. I got to walk down with one of the kids that I had worked quite a bit with and I loved seeing his face light up as he enjoyed all of the sights and sounds. One of my last memories of working with the orphanage was standing at the bridge over the river, watching the lanterns float down and seeing one of the kids point up to the stars. I said the word for “stars” in English and then one of the orphanage workers said the word in Chinese. It was a poetic moment of simple cultural exchange, respect, and enjoyment of life.

The Great Wall

“A Chinese saying goes that ‘he who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man’” (Badaling Great Wall museum)

As you can see from the picture, we were not the only ones to become “true men” that day.  We arrived early to the wall and there were many many people when we arrived but by the time we left there were so many people that I literally had to squeeze through the towers!  The crowd however was far from a nuisance, the energy of every person’s excitement to be at the Great Wall just made it that much more special to be there.

 

Many times while I was in China I wished that I had a time line of the dynasties and emperors (you probably will too after reading the quotes from the museum in the following paragraph!)  Chinese history is vast and complex.  It was amazing to be there and to grasp even small pieces of it.

“The Great Wall started to be built in the Spring and Autumn period over 2,500 years ago, and continued to be built in many dynasties afterwards it was constructed by various peoples.” “The Qin Great Wall was built by the first unified multi-ethnic feudal state in Chinese history.  The Han Great Wall was the longest in length in Chinese history” “From the Wei and Jin Dynasty to the Song and Yuan dynasties, northern nomadic peoples established regimes in the Central Plains.  Among these, the Northern Wei, the Eastern Wei, the Northern Qi, the Northern Zhou, and the Liaojin all built Great Walls” “After it was founded, the Ming Dynasty built the Great Wall to reinforce its reign.  The Great Wall was built almost incessantly during the 200-odd years of the dynasty, when its length reached more than 8,800 kilometers.  The Ming Great Wall surpassed the Great Wall in any other dynasty in the time and extent of construction and the completeness of defense system and structure.  (Badaling Great Wall Museum).

 

One of the most fascinating things that I learned about the Great Wall was that not only did it serve as defense against Northern tribes, it allowed for “political, economic, and cultural development” because it allowed for a safe communication East to West across the dynasty.

(A Ming Calvaryman delivering official documents)

 

I was able to learn a little bit about the construction of the Great Wall.  Our Chinese hostess told us that they used sticky rice in the mortar of the wall.  I’ve never heard of any grain being used in mortar but I told her that I would tell my family because they work in concrete.

It goes without saying that they Great Wall was built by man power.  As you look at the pictures and all of the individual stones that make up the Great Wall remember this and it will give you even more perspective on the wonder of the amazing construction.

The sign below this sculpture in the museum says, “During construction, working people accumulated much valuable experience.  The most important was ‘building forts suited to terrain.”  I don’t know why they chose the path they did for the wall, it certainly wasn’t the most convenient path.  I would imagine that they looked at the landscape and chose the places where nature and wall put together would provide the best defense.

As you can see in this picture, this tower is larger, both in footprint and in height, than the other towers.  I read that some of the towers were used for houses for the higher ranking officers and this tower is perhaps one of these.

 

Detail looking into a tower

 

 

Detail of stairs on the Great Wall

 

 

 

Far across the landscape you continue to see the Great Wall

Forbidden City

On our first day in China our flight to near Sanmenxia (the city where we worked at the orphanage) was cancelled and rebooked to later in the day so we had some time to go into Beijing center.

We walked through a beautiful park and then into Tian’anmen Square of which the Forbidden city is a part.

The Forbidden City is the former palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties (the Qing was the last dynasty in China).  The emperor who had it built had a Buddhist advisor who had a dream that the emperor should build a palace in a northern capital.  The Chinese characters for Beijing, 北京, mean “Northern Capital”.  In the times of the dynasties the people paid taxes to the emperors and would have never been allowed into a palace.  For this reason the Forbidden City is a symbolism of the benefits of Communism because it is now the people’s palace rather than being excluded from it (per the movie “China and the Forbidden City” made in the 70’s).

The sculpted ramp in the middle of the picture is a dragon sculpture.  It was believed that the emperor was descended from the dragon and that the emperor had direct communication with deity.  No one was allowed to step on this sculpture and the emperor was carried over it by people walking on the steps on either side.  Even now the area is gated off but perhaps more for preservation than the area being sacred.

The yellow roofs are the emperor’s colors and the design of the roof line was repeated in the the other imperial palaces.  The two pictures below show detail of the roof.  There were always dragons on the corner of the roofs.

Detail of dragons on Forbidden City gate

This is the footpath in the gardens of the palace.  I saw intricate “mosaics” like these all over the other palaces that I visited as well.

中国 - Zhongguo – Center Country

I was intimidated by China before going. Part of this was because I had so little information about the OT work we would be doing. But much of it was because I expected China to be so different and foreign from what I had experienced before. While in China I was frequently amazed at how normal and comfortable it felt and how easily I adapted to the little differences, like the weave of buses, cars, bikes, and people that comprise a city intersection. I called it "threading the needle." You find that one space amidst all the traffic and move yourself through it. Chinese intersections truly are an amazing phenomenon of instinctual organization in a seemingly chaotic space.

I'll post more later but this video is a taste of what I experienced in China.

This is a time lapse video that I took on the path to the Qing tomb museum/Terracotta Warrors, at a Beijing intersection, the Great Wall, and the Yuyuantan (park) in Beijing.

Here is a link to a higher quality version of the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV569vlj0QU

Summer is here!

It has been a tough spring in the Pacific NW this year. As a matter of fact calling it spring might be generous.  We turned the heat on June 20th because our house was just too cold.  We are ready for a little bit of warm weather.  We decided to celebrate the  Summer Solstice on the 21st by going to a local park to watch the sunset. Crystal picked me up at work and we drove over to the sound to watch the sun go down and have a picnic.  I’m a sucker for sunsets and we hoped the first day of summer would provide a peek of good weather and enough of a break in the clouds to see some color on the clouds.  It turned out to be a fun night.  The kids were crazy enough to wade in the sound (water temp about 45 degrees) and had fun playing on the beach.    Right at the time the sun was supposed to set the clouds actually broke and we got a view of the sun setting over the Olympic Mtns.  Summer Magic!

Here the kids are on the little island or gravel bar out in the sound. They had to wade through 50 fee of freezing water to get there.

Lucy enjoying the beach life.

This was a game of don’t take my pictures.  The kids were cold and wet after wading to an island in the sound and this got them running around and warmed back up a little bit.

By the way Seattle’s calendar must have been a day off because today 6/22 the weather has been fantastically glorious like it  usually is in the summer.  Phew!!

Finally!

Katie was happy to finally be out of Elementary school this year.  She got kind of a tough deal when we moved from Georgia to Washington.  In Georgia her last year of elementary would have been 5th grade and then off to Middle school.  Here in Washington she had to wait until 6th grade and then go to Jr. High.  After a tough 5th Grade year Katie landed with a good group of kids and a great teacher and has really enjoyed this last year of school, making good friends and having fun memories.  Upon Graduating she received the presidential award for academic excellence.  We are proud of the effort she has put forth in her schooling and look forward to new adventures next year.  Go Katie! :)

Crystal was in charge of getting refreshments for the graduation ceremony.  The Cream Puff’s were yummy!

A tough hike to bear

I took my Emma on her 1st one on one backpacking trip this weekend.  We decided to go over to the dry side to try escape the rain.  It may never stop raining this spring in Western Washington.  So far this year we have had one day above 75 degrees.  I searched online and found a great trail called Ingalls Creek.  There was lots to look at, beautiful wildflowers, varied trees in the forest, sunlight (gasp) on the rocks made for interesting views on the way to the campsite.  We hiked in a coupe of miles and made camp right next to the creek.  The creek was so noisy we had to raise our voices to talk but it was a very pretty place to spend the night.  Emma had fun hopping on the large boulders that lined the bank and we enjoyed having a small campfire to ward off the evening chill.  At dusk we had two visitors.  First a small field mouse with the biggest eyes you have ever seen came and inspected our camp for crumbs.  He found a few bites then went back into hiding.  A little later a bat made an appearance and buzzed by our heads a couple of times.  There were very few bugs on the hike and I didn't even apply insect repellent.  Compared to our last camping trip the lack of skeeters was heaven.
The last and best visitor came the next morning while we were cooking breakfast.  A medium sized black bear ambled almost into our camp (probably could smell the bacon) before we saw it and shouted it off.  I was cooking and had my back turned but Emma said it got to about 20 feet before she yelled to get my attention.  By the time I looked up the bear was about 40 feet away and was ambling up a steep hill.  It was a thrill to see a bear so close and it got my heart beating as well.  The cameral was in the tent so I didn’t get any pictures of the bear but I did get lots of other  pictures.