Yellow Mountain and More!

Hello Everyone,

It’s been a long time since my last post. I apologize, but the schedule in Shanghai has been very busy. This post will be a longer in order to describe what I have done over the last month. I thought I would start off this post with a news update from Shanghai University. The subway opened about a week ago near our campus. All the students are excited to be connected to the impressive Shanghai railway. Generally, before having access to the subway, students would take taxi’s and buses to get downtown. This process takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. Traffic can get pretty bad along the narrow streets throughout the city. Afterwards students would get on at the closest metro line to go downtown. Now with the new station we can get downtown without switching lines within 30 minutes. Having a metro station near campus saves time, money, and energy to see one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas. Before the expo opens in May there will be 10-12 active lines running throughout the city. Trains run from 6am until midnight. Fares are very low, most the time you can ride the metro all day for less than one U.S. Dollar. The recent addition of line number 7 (runs to our university) is one of many changes in preparation for the expo. The city is under a large amount of construction, which as a consequence makes the whole city busy. New signs and advertisements are going up every day for events that will take place during the Expo (May-October). I don’t have a picture of the new station outside the campus, but I did include a picture of our class outside one of the many scenic spots around campus (left).

Not unlike the subways system, the weather continues to change as well. Shanghai has gone from very warm and pleasant weather to cold and rainy. When I first arrived in August the weather was very hot and humid. Most days you had to take two showers to keep clean. During the majority of September and October the weather didn’t change. However, now the weather has become rainy and cold. Temperatures have dropped to around 32 degrees Fahrenheit. The rain was hard to adjust to. The worse part of the rain is the university doesn’t have dryers, so cloths rarely dry in the humid climate. Like Wyoming, Shanghai has plenty of wind. I sometimes wonder how the short light weight Chinese girls don’t blow over in the wind. The Chinese seem to be afraid of water because everybody owns an umbrella and its fun to observe the endless colors throughout the campus during the week days. Even a light drizzle brings out thousands of umbrellas. While in class students leave them throughout the hall ways to dry. Creating quite the obstacle to walk around, a combination of wet shoes and slick floor tiles makes it difficult to stay on your feet. The weather goes from 60 degrees to 32 frequently. Shanghai’s humid climate was hard to get use to, but I think I’m finally getting use to bone chilling cold. However, without snow the cold hardly seems worth it. I certainly miss looking at the Rocky Mountains covered in snow. I included a picture on the right from our class journey around the campus.

Classes are progressing very quickly. We have around four weeks left before we break for the semester. In order to get the class appropriately through the book our staff added four classes to our schedule. I have to admit classes have been very frustrating here administratively. Over the last four months classes have changed buildings, times, and teachers. Even though the teachers are good the administration is hard to deal with. When I first arrived on campus we had to go through a whirl wind of paper work and signing up for classes. We have had several different breaks from class they didn’t inform us until the last second. If we get breaks off from class they normally require students to make up the class time on weekends in class. The schedule and procedure has been hard to get use to I now have large appreciations for U.S. academic institutions. Despite all other frustrations I’m still enjoying my classes. Chinese language is very difficult to learn. The hardest part has been learning the four different speaking tones of Chinese-Mandarin. The grammar is relatively simple, but without understanding characters and tones there is no hope of learning the language. I look forward to having a break in the near future. The picture on the right is from outside the main gate of campus. The people are my class mates and the dragon is made of flowers.

After talking about my classes, I thought I would take some time to explain the campus. All the dorms are located in the North West part of the campus. I don’t know how many in total there are, but this is a large part of campus. The farthest North dorm is the international student’s dorm. Each dorm is about 10 stories high and has different floor layouts. Most of the students live alone or with a single roommate. Each dorm has a bathroom that is either shared with one or three other students. Each bathroom has a shower and modern toilet. In my room there is a bed, desk, and large closet for cloths. Each room has a heater/Air Conditioner. With a single remote, students control the temperature of the room. I hear the Chinese dorms a very different. There are four students to a room, which don’t have the heater/air conditioner. If this is true, life would be much harder. The dorms can get very cold at night without the heat being on. Within the dorm area there are four canteens (cafeterias). Canteens are crazy places filled with thousands of Chinese students. Plates are made of metal mess hall trays and served as you come up to the window. Eating is relatively cheap (less than $1 a day). Once you leave the dorm area you cross a single bridge over a large lake located in the center of campus. From here the library is on the northern side. In order to get to classes students walk across a large courtyard in front of the library. Classroom buildings all have a letter on them and each student proceeds to the appropriate letter for class. Each building has about four stories and there are buildings A through Z around campus. Each class room has a chalk board, desks, and a small heater to keep the room temperature comfortable. Until recently the campus was decorated with tons of flowers. The university spent a lot of time and effort on creating a positive atmosphere for students and visiting guests. Throughout the campus there are statues, which were decorated with an assortment of flowers. Each picture above has examples of the flowers. I included more pictures from around campus with my class. On the left the flower are arranged like the Chinese Expo building and on the right is a dragon made of flowers outside of the main gate on campus. The campus besides that is very basic. There are lots of open spots with grass and winding paths. There are four gates you can enter the campus through (north, south, west, and east). Outside the west gate is a host of restaurants and shops necessary for living on campus. The north gate has the new subway stop. The south gate is used for large trucks and buses entering the campus with students and teachers. I’ve never ventured out to the East gate so I don’t know what on that side. The campus is large, which was hard to navigate the first few months of class. The picture on the left was located in the center of campus. The flowers in the background are modeled after the Chinese Expo building downtown.

A few friends and I spent time downtown exploring the different discount markets. I finally decided to buy something for myself. I invested 460 Yuan ($67 USD) on a brand new suit. When I walked into the famous fabric market I was overcome with hundreds of different shops. Among all the shops you can find any fabric known by man. Each store has different expertise and each store owner will try and pursued customers into checking out their materials. Once I choose a shop (from the three different floors) I picked out fabrics and style for my suit. Each shop hangs sample products throughout the stores for customers to look at. Once I picked what I wanted a tailor took a bunch of measurements necessary for a hand tailored suit. Once I was done I put a down payment of 230 Yuan (half the total) and they informed me my suit would be ready for pick up a week later. The fabric market is very impressive. There are dresses, shirts, suits, jackets (Kashmir/leather), and even shoes. All of the products are handmade and tailored to fit each customer’s unique body style. They also sell ties, cuff links, and silk fabric products (which are pre made). A week later I came to pick up my suit. It looked great. However, when I tried it on I thought something was wrong with the suit. After thinking about it however I realized I wasn’t use to a suit fitting exactly right. I really enjoyed my experience and I think the suit looks great. To have the same quality and attention to detail I’m convinced I would have to spent at least a thousand dollars in the United States. For anybody who visits Shanghai, I highly recommend visiting each one of the markets to pick up handmade Chinese goods. I included a picture I took with the Shanghai skyline in the background.

Like my previous posts I wanted to include an observation from China compared to living back home. After spending nearly four months in China I have learned the power of negotiation in business and politics. I was walking through a bookstore downtown the other day and saw a title “everything can be negotiated.” I thought to myself the subtitle should read “a story from China.” No price seems to be set when you live in China. When you walk outside of the west gate food prices are bargained over. Most often I find myself trying to bargain over a few apples, oranges, or bananas. Some places outside the gate are set, but very few are. Bargaining techniques are especially important when you go downtown to the different Chinese markets. As I walk by other western visitors I hear the Chinese merchants selling goods for very high prices. I have learned over the last few months you have to work with the Chinese in order to get their prices down. At first I was unaware and paid very high prices for goods. I’ve learned more about bargaining than I ever thought I would. Most of the sales people are younger and are looking to practice their English. Even if I have no intention of buying anything I decide to try different tactics for getting a desired price. I find this experience in Chinese markets has relevance about doing business and dealing with people in the future. When shops and products are a dime a dozen it’s easier to negotiate a lower price. If the product is hard to find (quality wise) then the merchant has demanded a higher price. The ability to communicate and bargain to me is valuable, because a customer in China should never pay the asking price. I had to learn how to manage what I know about a products worth and how much the merchant is willing to reduce the price in order to make money. Chinese markets and bargaining are quite the experience, which is well worth experiencing. It’s chaotic, loud, and hard to adjust to, but once I got the system down its worth interacting with the citizens of Shanghai. The picture on the right is from around downtown one night.

Despite learning how to bargain, eating new foods, and adjusting to the Chinese way of life I decided to take out my book of “never thought I would see the day” and added teaching English to the list. I think my dad said it best “I never thought I would see the day a Beach would teach English.” I’m currently teaching two young Korean students. Each Friday, I make a trek all the way across town (without the new subway 2 ½ hours) to a nice end of Shanghai. The students are around six and nine years old. They are both boys and I teach them in a private residence. The mother is a very nice Chinese lady, who is currently working a Master’s degree to teach English and Chinese in the United States. I have only seen the father once, who is Korean. Both students are already fluent in Chinese and Korean. My part is helping them through their work books and engaging with them in general conversation. They are very smart kids, but I can tell their school schedule is very intense. Most the time I have to find ways of keeping them interested in the text. Each week I try to think of fun things to talk about in their lives or what they like about school in Shanghai. This has been a great opportunity to make a little cash on the side, but most importantly learn how to teach English to foreign students. I never thought I would see the day I’m helping teach English. I’m encouraged (if available) to extend my knowledge to others in Shanghai or after my return to the United States. This has been an amazing experience I hope before I return to include a picture of the two kids I teach. After I’m done teaching I have a long ride back, but it gives me plenty of time to reflect on each week and appreciate the opportunity to be learning in a foreign country. I have become familiar with riding the metro system and look forward to utilizing public transit when I return to Denver.

Phew this post has already become long, but I have plenty more to share. A few weeks ago I was presented my first test in Chinese. Mid Terms weren’t exactly in the middle of the semester, but we had covered half the material at the point of the test. Everything went okay. I didn’t knock the tests out of the park, but I survived with pretty good marks (grades). The timing of the tests was pretty frustrating. The tests would have been better during the middle of the semester in order to appropriately prepare for them, but I have learned you can’t expect much organization out of the university. The intensive Chinese language program is separate from the rest of the degree students, so our schedule is different than the rest of the Chinese students. I was not prepared for having tests and continuing classes at the same time. We had one class period to take the tests and then we continued as normal the next day. In the U.S. this is a little different; mid terms usually take half a week up proceeded by a break to get back into class mode. It was a difficult transition, but I survived so I can’t complain too much. The hardest part of the tests was the listening section. I still haven’t adjusted to hearing Chinese conversations. Tones for me are hard to catch and I still need work on before our final examinations. Overall it went well and I’m trying to make more progress as we go.

After mid terms one of our teachers’ invited the entire class to her house to enjoy authentic Chinese cooking and hospitality. Ten to twelve students ended up going across campus to visit our teacher’s apartment. I’m still not use to established teachers living in apartments. Everybody in Shanghai lives in apartments, due to the amount of people; buildings are built up instead of out. We ended up going during lunch so the atmosphere was very casual. It’s not uncommon for the husband’s parents to live with the family in Chinese households. While our teacher entertained us and showed the apartment her in-laws cooked the food. I will only list a few but the dishes were duck, chicken, and dumplings (very popular in China). I wasn’t a big fan of the dumplings but the Chicken and Duck were fantastic. Along with these dishes one of the Korean students in class made one of my favorite dishes here. It’s a very spicy rice noodle dish. I’m trying to figure out the name of the dish in order to have it when I come back to the United States. After we ate we presented a gift we got for our teacher’s daughter. Usually when attending Chinese events guests bring gifts for the family household. Most of the Western students thought of bringing a bottle of wine, but we were unsure if that would be appropriate so we bought a toy for her daughter. I have learned family is a very important in China. Most students get involved with their future partners early in life. It’s very uncommon for people to remain single late into their twenties and I have rarely heard of divorce. Everything focuses on the family. It’s an essential part of the Chinese way of life. In fact, when the Chinese ask it surprises them to hear university students who don’t have boyfriends/girlfriends. Both pictures included in this paragraph are from lunch with our teacher.

A few days after our lunch with our teacher we decided to celebrate another’s birthday in class. I was unaware of how the students found out our teacher’s birthday, but we all chipped in a few Yuan in order to buy a cake for our teacher. The cake was bought from a local shop outside of west gate and looked great for the last minute planning. This was the first time I have celebrated a teacher’s birthday, especially in the middle of class. We actually delayed class a little while before we got the cake there. All the students decided to disappear until we all walked in with the cake. The teacher actually got worried where all the students were. As soon as we entered with the cake he found out from another teacher what our plans were and wrote a large thank you on the chalk boards. I didn’t realize it but birthdays are very big celebrations in China. So the teacher talked to us about birthday traditions and how much he wished his wife was there to see what his students did for him in class. The picture on the left is our teacher and the other is our class.

The university hosted several different trips around China. I chose to go on the Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) trip. I thought I would explain each day on our adventure (to include more pictures). The first day started very early outside of the international dorm. After waking up around 5am I took my packed bag and slowly made my way down to the lobby. There were roughly forty students who signed up for the trip. After boarding the bus, the staff called our names and gave us our breakfast (break and water haha). We spent the next six hours sleeping on the bus while we made our way to a place called Xidi village. Before we got there we stopped to have lunch at a nice Chinese restaurant. Upon entering the hosts took everybody upstairs to the dining hall. It was incredibly cold to begin with. Each table was sat around a round rotating disk. I know I have talked about eating in China before, but as a refresher most formal dining situations are around a round table where food is shared among all the guests at the table. Meals are served in waves. Most of the dishes were vegetables and soups. However, there was a great duck and sweet chicken dish, which was consumed the fastest. A few other students and I had the pleasure of sitting at the teachers table where we discussed different topics about our classes and how we are enjoying our stay in China. After lunch we proceeded to the village. The picture on the left is the food we were served and on the right are two friends from the trip.

The village was a lot of fun. It was a very short tour, but it took was a great example of ancient China. There was a large lake located at the base of a beautiful mountain. On the left there was the old village. As we walked in we were herded in with several other Chinese visitors. We were given a very quick guided tour through the highlights of the village, but the exciting part was during our free time. After we were done with the tour we were free to roam the area. Not to my surprise, there were vendors all over the village. They sold everything from nick naks to authentic Chinese paintings. I roamed around with a few friends that went on this trip. We checked out different shops and took pictures all over the village. One of them bought a sling shot, so we played with that around the pond and at the gate of the village. The scenery was great the village was at the base of several different mountains and the paintings around the area were well preserved. This was the first place I visited in China I felt I was in an authentic ancient area of China. While we were walking back to the bus the same person who bought the sling shot ran into a black crow in a cage. The natives claimed the bird spoke Chinese.. We spent several minutes trying to get the bird to speak Chinese. No luck! We have lots of pictures from the trip, so I had a hard time picking the best photos for this post, but I picked the following two. The left is a few friends and I inside one of the buildings and the picture on the right is in front of the gate near the center of the village.

After we left the village we went to what I thought was a tea museum, but it ended up being a place you taste tea. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Huangshan is known for its tea. This was a great experience. We were walked through the bottom floor that described the history of tea making and how it’s made in the district. We had the opportunity afterword to go upstairs and taste the different tea products. We sampled green, black, and red tea. We sat in two nice rooms where they explained each product and a few differences between the types of tea. They poured each one of us a cup of hot water and told us how to prepare each type of tea. We spent the next thirty minutes trying different teas. I ended up buying some green tea, which I have been drinking since we left. I can really tell the difference having a cup or two of tea each day. After we were done testing tea they walked us out to the garden located behind the building. We took some pictures and walked back on the bus. We left the tea place for our hotel. It ended up being about another hour across town to get to our hotel. Compared to my last tripe the hotel was very nice. I had one roommate a fellow American named Cody from the state of Minnesota. The room had a hot shower and good accommodations. After we got settled a group of us headed down to dinner. Dinner was very similar to lunch with several authentic Chinese dishes. One or two of them were great and were consumed quickly. Once everybody was done our teachers took us to what they called old road. This had a host of different venders. We walked down the street and looked at different shops and things they had to offer. I didn’t end up buying anything, but many students did. We actually ended up walking to a KFC because a few of the students I was with didn’t eat the dinner, because they preferred to have fast food. I’m always puzzled why student fly half way around the world to not eat authentic Chinese food and have fast food you can get anywhere. This was not the first time (nor the last) they would take fast food instead of the Chinese dishes. I’m glad to try different meals. My tastes have changed a lot since coming to China. I enjoy lots more vegetables and types of cooking. We ended the night by walking back to the hotel. They ended up having a little get together in one of the rooms, but I didn’t stay long I knew the next day was going to be tiring. Both pictures are from the tea tasting. The one on the right is the face printed on their products.

The next day was spent on the mountain. It started once again with an early morning. We started with a Chinese breakfast, which was interesting to say the least. It consisted of bread, rice porridge, hard boiled eggs, and what I would call a sesame poof (no idea what it was). I have to admit I like most meals in China, but nothing can beat a good old fashion American breakfast. After breakfast we had about an hour bus ride to the base of the mountain. Once we arrived the group was taken from one bus to another which took up us about another thirty minutes. After words our hike began. Our first stop was a short walk up some steps toward a gondola. This was amazing it took us up the side of the mountain where our cart was suspended high above the ground. I have lots of pictures from this ride, which I included one to the right and will share more when I return or in later posts. Once we got off the ride we were at the base of what was told be a three hour walk to our hotel. The scenery was beautiful the mountains are unlike anything I have ever seen. We walked for nearly five hours through winding and narrow paths. Normally, when I go to the mountains there are few people and plenty of time and space to think …not in China. The place was crawling with people. Trails and sights were covered with people. Most of the visitors where Chinese, our tour group was the largest group of international visitors. While walking down the trail it was not uncommon to run into small Chinese guys who were responsible for carrying large bags of cement up and down the mountain on their shoulders. This was crazy I don’t know how they made it up some of the sharp inclines and narrow paths, especially around the large amount of people on each trail. As we walked we took tons of individual and group pictures. I look forward to sharing all of them. When we were about half way we stopped at one of the scenic overlooks that had a restaurant. The entire group had lunch at this location. Most of the food was similar to what I explained above. We took one large group picture, which I included on the right. After eating at the restaurant we climbed for the next few hours keeping a steady pace with plenty of stops for pictures. Once we were at the top we spent the night at a hotel on top of the mountain. I didn’t think they built such a thing, but China never surprises me. The hotel was very pretty. Our accommodation was very nice. It was tighter though there were eight people in our room. After we got unpacked we walked down to dinner. Once again similar food to meals I mentioned before. About an hour after dinner we walked five minutes to a beautiful overlook to watch the sunset. This was great to watch and feel the temperature change very quickly after the sun set over the mountains. We spent the rest of the night playing games and talking over a few beverages. I learned a great new game to play called mafia. It’s a role playing game with cops and citizens trying to catch the mafia. It will be a great party game down the road. I included two other pictures from around our journey. The next morning we hiked down the mountain. We took a different gondola ride down the side of the mountain and took a long bus ride home. We hit plenty of traffic so we didn’t arrive till later Sunday night. Luckily we had the next Monday off, so I got plenty of rest after a great trip. This was a much needed break from the city. Amazing to get out, breath fresh air, and get a little bit of exercise with a few great friends I have made while in Shanghai.

I hope this post wasn’t too long, but I wanted to include everything I’ve done over the last month. It’s the holiday season and Christmas is everywhere around China. Most the students are in good moods as we get ready to celebrate the holiday. Can’t believe I will be turning 23 in just a few days. Time continues to fly bye. The final picture below is from on top of the mountain at sunset.

I hope everybody’s holiday season is going well!

Travis Beach