Last Days

Christopher and Emily and I went out for Korean food. That stuff is really good!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

All of those lights in the sky are lanterns. There were thousands of them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Street vendor near the train overpass during Lantern festival.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

This was People Square in Linping during the Lantern Festival.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

So my final days in Linping are fast approaching. I've been wrapping up loose ends, cleaning and deciding where to go and what to do. I've said most of my goodbyes, gotten rid of a bunch of stuff and transferred my cash to my Canadian account. In a week, I'll be hanging out with Clay and Amy in Hangzhou. No responsibilities. Just friends and good times ahead.

The country list looks like this...

China, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, India, Jordan, Israel, England and Canada.

Chinese New Year

So what happens when the New Year rolls around in China? All hell breaks loose. It was seriously like nothing I have ever witnessed before. I have never been in a war zone but I am guessing that this is what it was like?!  For a solid six hours the noise didn't relent. At the stroke of midnight, the sky was on fire. I was in my apartment and could not count all the different areas of the city that were lighting off fireworks. 

Strange Days

So I woke up this morning rather late for me. 7:15 am. I rolled around in bed for a while debating what I should do. The sun was shinning in my window. I reached over to my desk and grabbed "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah. It's a book that I picked up a while back and just didn't begin.

Well I started on page one. Next thing I knew, it was 1:30 pm, the book was finished and I was in disbelief and amazement at what he went through. It is basically a biography of Ishmael's life as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. He is about the same age as me and when I think that while I was hopping curbs on my BMX, he was strung out of cocaine and killing people, it makes my head hurt.

Also, tonight I was walking home from the park and happened upon a funny scene. A man who had obviously had too many beers was exiting a bar. He looked agitated. He grabbed a chair that was outside a restaurant, lifted it over his head and threw it into the window of he restaurant. Surprisingly the window didn't break. Due to what I think was Chinese quality control deficiency, the CHAIR broke into about 50 pieces as it hit the window. An old lady of about 60 years of age came out and started to shove the man who looked to be about 40. I thought about intervening but what could I really do but get deported or something along those lines. Things settled and I left.

Linping - A city divided

This is what I see many mornings, afternoons and nights. My neighbors like the fireworks... Just so you get a scale of how close this is to me, I shot this with a 16mm lens on a 30D. They are literally one building away.
------------------------------------------------------------

There are things here that continue to amaze me. Linping is a small city. When I say small, I mean area, there is no shortage of people. The thing that really makes me think is when I talk to people that have never been downtown. This is a factory town. As such, many employees live in the provided dorm apartments. Markets and small stores are everywhere so they have no NEED to leave their little comfort zone of the factory.

When I go downtown, 90% of the time I do not buy anything or have any reason to go there. I just go to explore. I have the need to see places that I have never been to. I have been like this as long as I can remember. Back on Adelaide Street, I would venture to the Exhibition and wander in the horse stables. Later when we moved to Clark Cr, I ventured past 8th street and found Doug's Spoke N Sport. I came to China because I have never lived out of Canada, why take baby steps when my legs are long?

I guess the point of this post is just to let people know that the world is a big place, explore it. Even if it is your own city. Go to that market in the ethnic part of town. Check out the industrial area. Just got out of your apartment complex.

Lan, If you happen to read this, fire me off an e-mail.

Dragon Boat 2008

This past Sunday was the Dragon Boat Festival in China. Unlike Saskatoon, this festival means a day off and mass festivities. I went to Xixi Wetland to check out the action. The amount of people that were there was simple nuts. Unlike in Saskatoon, where there is ample wide open shore to watch from, Xixi has trees, small paths and other obstacles to viewing and taking pictures. Also, check out the media circus. I have never been in a scrum quite like that before. My one saving grace was that I was taller than most other people there.

The coolest thing, was after taking pictures for a few hours, I went to a small village where I was invited to paddle one of the boats! I jumped at the invitation. Part of the boating is docking at various houses to take offerings of rice and money. They then light off fireworks and you continue on.

The fireworks, however, are not the simple roman candles that you buy at truck stops in Canada. These are the 1/4 sticks of dynamite that crazy Americans use to blow up barns. At one point, one came quite close to the boat and we all ducked as it zipped past out heads, mere inches from one guy, just before it exploded.

Despite the intensely polluted water, I got completely soaked and had a killer time. I can't wait for next year...

!!!!!!

I just had a eureka moment. Yesterday I was in Hangzhou, I was walking to the bus station, I walked past a group of a few hundred office workers all outside a tall office building looking up. I assumed a fire alarm hence the evacuation.

NOW I realize that it was the earthquake.

I now know where I was when the ground was shaking. I was walking down Jiefang road with my new National Geographic.

My appology

This is a common site these days. People taking pictures. Myself included.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A friend, Liz, poses for a picture as I showed her around the park.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For everyone that has contacted me recently and not gotten a reply, I am sorry. I am working on replying to everyone that contacts me, but you see, it is spring. The general attitude in the area has become laissez faire. Not in the governmental sense, it is still as communist Red as ever, but in the sense that everyone seems to be not caring as much. About life in general. More people are getting out and about enjoying the heat.

For instance, I spent three hours at People Square today. I spent some time reading The Fall of Baghdad. I also spent some time sleeping under a tree. I think it is the heat. With the temperature hitting 30 degrees, people are feeling lethargic, myself included.


A short distance away from me sat a couple, lovers I would guess. The girl said something and the boy replied. Not liking what she heard, the girl screamed, threw the boys shirt in a pond and then stormed off. The boys reaction? None. He didn't move. He just continued to lay on the grass for the next hour.

The whole city seems to be like to boy. It is a laid back feel. I will ride it until the end.

Loyalist Sweeps OCNA

I decided to take a walk up Linping Park on Monday. The park is a 100 meter hill that has a temple on the top, an amusement park and zoo on the side. This is no little park...
----------------------------------------------------------

This is the amusement parks merry-go-round. I initially thought the park was abandoned as there was no one there (so I thought) and the trees were rather overgrown. Turns out it IS open and people did start showing up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

A couple looks over downtown Linping near the bull statue near the half way point of the climb to the top.
----------------------------------------------------------

Don't show this to Gord, my Photoshop teacher, it is a terrible example of a stitch and color matching job. It does show downtown Linping though, or most of it anyway.
------------------------------------------------------------

What it is about watching the rain at night is a busy car and pedestrian traffic area that makes me feel like writing? I will save you all from that though. I do think that the rainy season has started here. Last night one hell of a storm rolled through, thunder and lightning, real close, real loud. The concussion from the thunder was so great that it was setting off car alarms.

In another note, I would like to brag for a minute. The contest that I was nominated for, well I won first place! Feels good. Too bad that there is no big cash prize...

I have NGC TV!!!!

So I was blessed with National Geographic TV today. Back in Canada I would often spend many a Sunday, sitting on the couch watching Crisis Zone while drinking coffee. Now it looks like I will be able to do it in China as well. Just swap coffee for green tea and couch for bed...

My City - Yuhang/Linping

This guy sits in a park that is in between two busy shopping streets.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a street market that opens up every night, but during the day it is just a regular crazy Chinese street. If you are a local, it is a great place to buy bootleg clothes and DVD's.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The city is full of crazy canals. They are everywhere. I am sure that they are full of pollution though. I never see anyone in boats like Venice.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The city is also full of monuments and other large granite artwork. Makes for pretty cool scenery at night.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know it sounds crazy seeing as how I just got here and all, but I am already planning my return to Saskatoon in a year. You see, I found this thing called the Trans-Siberian rail line. Basically, it travels from Beijing to Moscow in 14 days. I think that would be a hell of a trip. Take that and then catch a bus or 6 to somewhere near England, fly into England, hang with Jim and tony for a few days and then fly back to Canada. If anyone wants to come, just let me know in the next 11 months.