My trip in China is sort of like a vacation, despite the clinic time, but within that the whole country goes on vacation, so I did too. The first part of it was spent at Yellow Mountain, which you can read about in the previous posts, but now I am in the middle of 5 days off I had after that, before I go back to clinic on Monday (new Dr, different hospital). The day after HuangShan, I did nothing---I spent the day in my room editing photos, reading, listening to music, talking on Skype, napping and cooking food in my rice cooker. It was wonderful. That day was Erica's birthday, so a lot of us went out that night for dinner at a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant just down the street from "home". It was delicious, and not full of meat and MSG. Yay! I went there again tonight, actually. Dinner was good, and then we went to the Jazz bar again and had a couple drinks and met some other travelers. Most of them were teachers--English, Social Studies, etc, and were actually having their own get together. We actually even met a guy from Portland! I'd heard that this place we tried to go to earlier in the trip, as well as earlier in the evening, actually had good entertainment after 9:30. Ok, I'll be honest, I actually heard they had pole dancing transvestites---so--- a bunch of us decided to check that out, but can you blame us? China? Transvestites? Pole Dancing? We had to see. While there was a disapointing lack of transvestites, there was a little bit of cabaret like pole dancing, and some of the strangest variety show acts I have ever seen. They also gave us little plastic clappers shaped like hands, which were probably the highlight of my evening. It started with some high pitched singing and Chinese flag waving, as well as a hardy joke on us Americans. It was pointed out to me later that we probably deserved it, because we essentially barged in on their celebration during their national holiday week. So much for ignorance. There was some comedy in Chinese that I didn't understand, some really strange fake-violin playing which I took pictures of, some cabaret & pole dancing, and a good magician dressed like Charlie chaplain who did a lot of tricks like balancing things on his nose that you wouldn't think could be balanced there, and smoking a cigarette out of his eye. When they started the comedy in Chinese again, we went next door to the foreigner bar and stopped crashing their party. I didn't last long amoungst all the Brits and New Zealanders, and came home.
The next day I found the post office which was an adventure in itself, and then took a bike ride to the Nanjing Brocade Institute. It took a while to find, in part because I can't speak Chinese, but also because it's behind the Nanjing Massacre memorial, which thousands of people were lined up to see. I may go back there, but I know I'd find it hard to feel that kind of sad around so many tourists. The museum is pretty incredible though. The Nanjing brocade style (cloud, I think) is one of three styles of brocade in China. They had a pretty big collection of replicas of very old silks (like Ming Dynasty), and some fragments, as well as some more "modern" stuff from 1600 and on. I got my own personal tour guide from the guy who speaks English, who also happened to be an acupuncture student. I learned all kinds of things about brocade, the craft and the symbology, and got to see a demonstration in their loom room--which there are pictures of. I wish I could post pictures of the silks, but they are light sensitive and no photos are allowed. I think my favorite thing about art like this is all the symbolism. I learned about various kinds of plants and what they mean, like Reishi mushroom for longevity and peaches for health, chrysanthemum for moral character and lions for high military rank. I also learned that there are some types of brocade that can only be made by hand, and that only one cubic centimeter can be made per day. After seeing the people making it, I believe it. The tour guide showed me the shop, and I almost bought some things, but they were expensive (for China) and I couldn't decide on what to get, so I'll have to go back. After some street snacks and dinner, I went for a massage next door and then to bed. I have to say, while the massage next door isn't the most skilled, it's nice to have your feet rubbed and then tuck in. I hope Korea has pre-bedtime foot rubs for $7.00 too.
Today I went on the longest and funnest "date" of all time with Christine. We started out at Jimmy's, the same foreigner bar we were at the other night, to have pizza and burritos for lunch before Purple Mountain. We ended up staying for a few hours, making friends with a guy from Boston, Simon, and watching the VP debate and ripping on Palin. She's an OK speaker, but the nasal whine coupled with the poor logic and circular talk would put anyone over the edge if they had to listen to it for 4 years. This one New Zealander guy came into the bar while we were watching, and it only took the mere suggestion of him having to listen to her tell him to take the trash out for 4 years to convice him to go for Biden. Not that his vote counts, but he was all for the "hot younger chick" in the beginning.
We eventually made our way to Purple Mountain, where we saw Underwater World. It's like Seaworld but Chinese, and kind of tragic where the mammals are concerned. Afterwards we rode the cable car up to the top, got lost around the scenic area and eventually ran into some statues and pagodas. I took some pictures, so take a look!
We tend to make Chinese friends wherever we go who can speak about as much English as we can Chinese, but who really like to take our picture without asking. We just started telling them we were famous movie stars in the US. I'm not sure anyone believed us, but I'm also not sure they understood what we were saying. If anyone asks, I'm Nicole Kidman.
We had an adventure getting off the mountain, and rewarded ourselves with veggie buddhist dinner. Now its back at the hotel, and off to shower and bed for massage in the morning. It's hard being so famous in China!
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