Sunday, May 3, 2009
WWE?
I am currently updating my blog at Hannah's house. Her dad is sitting across the room from me watching WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, used to be WWF, I think) videos he downloaded off the internet. This is at least the third night this week he's done this.
Gobi Desert
Day 4:
Today we "played," as Chinese people like to say, in the Gobi for a few hours and headed back to Huhehaote to catch the overnight train back to Beijing. The Gobi was impressive. The dunes were a workout to climb.
Today we "played," as Chinese people like to say, in the Gobi for a few hours and headed back to Huhehaote to catch the overnight train back to Beijing. The Gobi was impressive. The dunes were a workout to climb.
Ghengis Khan
Day 3:
We did (practically) nothing on day three besides drive from Huhehaote west to Erdos, the nearest city to the Gobi Desert where we could spend the night.
Genghis Khan is everywhere in Inner Mongolia; the people of Inner Mongolia view him as one of their (and China’s) greatest heroes and savior. You see his face around Inner Mongolia as often as you see Jesus’s face in a church: portraits in restaurants and stores, statues, painted on sides of buildings, etc.
We did (practically) nothing on day three besides drive from Huhehaote west to Erdos, the nearest city to the Gobi Desert where we could spend the night.
Genghis Khan is everywhere in Inner Mongolia; the people of Inner Mongolia view him as one of their (and China’s) greatest heroes and savior. You see his face around Inner Mongolia as often as you see Jesus’s face in a church: portraits in restaurants and stores, statues, painted on sides of buildings, etc.
Hey Huhehaote
Day 2:
There’s not a whole lot to do on the grasslands, so to plump up our itinerary Amy and Kristen’s travel agent in Beijing said we would wake up to watch the sunrise over the grass surrounding our yurts. When we asked our guide about this she stared back at us, clueless. After Kristen explained that it was on our schedule, the guide told us we could wake up around 5:30 a.m. and reminded us to “look east.”
Well, I woke up – more like I was up at 5:30 a.m. anyway cause it was too cold in the fake yurts to get any sleep – but when I stepped outside it was cloudy out and appeared the sun was already up. A few hours later we (excitedly) packed up our stuff and headed to Huhehaote for the day.
When just driving through, Huhehao te seems kind of dull: a place one would stay because the were stuck more than out of choice. As with many places, however, Huhehaote seemed exponentially better after taking the time to wander and explore.
We went to a mosque in the Muslim Quarter of town, tucked away behind food stands run by Hui (one of China's 56 nationalities, distinguished for their practice of Islam) people. The mosque was unique in how much its architecture took after East Asian temples, with four building forming a courtyard in the center of the complex. Fun fact: In 1949 when the PRC was founded, this mosque's minaret was the tallest building in Huhehaote.
Later, Becky and I found a temple with beautifully painted designs and a building on the north side with multi-tiered pagodas on each corner, well worth the 35 元 to get in. On our walk back, we passed a park that looked like it would be pretty if enough rain would fall to turn the grass green. We bought colorful hammocks from a woman also in charge of collecting fairs for the parking lot outside.
There’s not a whole lot to do on the grasslands, so to plump up our itinerary Amy and Kristen’s travel agent in Beijing said we would wake up to watch the sunrise over the grass surrounding our yurts. When we asked our guide about this she stared back at us, clueless. After Kristen explained that it was on our schedule, the guide told us we could wake up around 5:30 a.m. and reminded us to “look east.”
Well, I woke up – more like I was up at 5:30 a.m. anyway cause it was too cold in the fake yurts to get any sleep – but when I stepped outside it was cloudy out and appeared the sun was already up. A few hours later we (excitedly) packed up our stuff and headed to Huhehaote for the day.
When just driving through, Huhehao te seems kind of dull: a place one would stay because the were stuck more than out of choice. As with many places, however, Huhehaote seemed exponentially better after taking the time to wander and explore.
We went to a mosque in the Muslim Quarter of town, tucked away behind food stands run by Hui (one of China's 56 nationalities, distinguished for their practice of Islam) people. The mosque was unique in how much its architecture took after East Asian temples, with four building forming a courtyard in the center of the complex. Fun fact: In 1949 when the PRC was founded, this mosque's minaret was the tallest building in Huhehaote.
Later, Becky and I found a temple with beautifully painted designs and a building on the north side with multi-tiered pagodas on each corner, well worth the 35 元 to get in. On our walk back, we passed a park that looked like it would be pretty if enough rain would fall to turn the grass green. We bought colorful hammocks from a woman also in charge of collecting fairs for the parking lot outside.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Welcome to the Grasslands
Inner Mongolia Trip, Day 1:
Around 7:35 a.m. we pulled into Hohot’s, the provincial capital of Inner Mongolia (Nei Menggu, 内蒙古), train station. If you tell a Chinese person you’re going to Hohot, however, chances are they will have no clue what you’re talking about because its Chinese name is Hohehaote. I’m not sure why we don’t just use the pinyin … to complicated for white people to handle?
For breakfast we popped into a fast food restaurant adjacent to the station where they were serving two-foot long fried dough sticks. Most people were dipping theirs into a white soup, but we couldn’t figure out how to get some, so we dumped sugar on top and chowed down.
Next, we drove out over a super winding road into the grasslands. Our driver must have been determined to make it in record time because we were swerving in and out of trucks, budding into the opposite lane, the whole time. As we hopped out of the bus onto the grasslands, we were greeted by people dressed in traditional (Inner?) Mongolian attire atop their jeans and Nike sweatpants. When that was over, we quickly dropped our luggage off in our respective yurts and headed to the pig pile of horses so we could take a tour of the grasslands on horseback. Our tour consisted of view after view of semi-grassy plains, a stone yurt, an attacking goat, a “lake” that resembled more of a puddle and Swan Lake, which much to our dismay, was dried up. Yay Nei Menggu!
Around 7:35 a.m. we pulled into Hohot’s, the provincial capital of Inner Mongolia (Nei Menggu, 内蒙古), train station. If you tell a Chinese person you’re going to Hohot, however, chances are they will have no clue what you’re talking about because its Chinese name is Hohehaote. I’m not sure why we don’t just use the pinyin … to complicated for white people to handle?
For breakfast we popped into a fast food restaurant adjacent to the station where they were serving two-foot long fried dough sticks. Most people were dipping theirs into a white soup, but we couldn’t figure out how to get some, so we dumped sugar on top and chowed down.
Next, we drove out over a super winding road into the grasslands. Our driver must have been determined to make it in record time because we were swerving in and out of trucks, budding into the opposite lane, the whole time. As we hopped out of the bus onto the grasslands, we were greeted by people dressed in traditional (Inner?) Mongolian attire atop their jeans and Nike sweatpants. When that was over, we quickly dropped our luggage off in our respective yurts and headed to the pig pile of horses so we could take a tour of the grasslands on horseback. Our tour consisted of view after view of semi-grassy plains, a stone yurt, an attacking goat, a “lake” that resembled more of a puddle and Swan Lake, which much to our dismay, was dried up. Yay Nei Menggu!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Cow dung to come to Boston!
I am happy to announce that the shit on a stick fad from new years is still going strong in Beijing. Today, I came across a stall in a market selling shit on a stick paraphernalia: stuffed animals, key chains and stuffed shits on a stick that play music when whacked against something. I bought the latter! He's wearing glasses, smirking and has a pink kong fu band around his head (if you can say that Mr. Cowdung has a head).
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