Living and Working in China: November 2012

Saturday 24 November

Ticket to Lanke Shan park

The weather is starting to get cooler now, the students are wearing padded jackets in class (the rooms are not heated), although I can still get by with just a long-sleeved polo top.

The weather today was fine for an excursion though, cool and overcast. If the weather was OK, Marzena (the Polish English teacher from the adjacent university) and I had agreed to go to Lanke Mountain (Lanke Shan). It was supposed to be only 10km from Quzhou. Well that’s probably true, but only if you count from the outskirts of Quzhou! Finding the bus departure point was also a mini adventure (it was in a small depot in north Quzhou) but not as interesting as the bus ride itself.

The village where we commenced
our walk to Lanke Shan

The brakes on the bus sounded like they were completely worn, and whenever the driver applied them there was a horrendous scraping and squealing noise, and the bus slowed only marginally, then they would lock and stop suddenly. Conversations in the bus were conducted between screeches, and everyone was noticeably concerned at the way the bus was unlikely to stop suddenly if required. To the driver’s credit, he drove slowly and applied the brakes judiciously.

The trip itself took about and hour, most of which was spent tortuously travelling through the outer suburbs of Quzhou, although it improved after we left the outskirts. So, an hour later, we arrived at Shishi Village and were advised to get off…thankfully.

Gateway to Lanke Shan with a
Chinese chess motif

Roadside mural featuring Chinese chess

The direction to Lanke Shan was reasonably well signposted so we headed off on foot, to arrive about half an hour later at the entrance to the park.

The setting was very peaceful, and with the leaves on many trees starting to change colour it was quite beautiful. It reminded me a bit of Audley in the Royal National Park near Sydney – on a wintry weekday when it’s deserted.

The natural rock arch

The huge Chinese chess pieces below
the arch

After paying the small entry, 20RMB ($3AUS) we headed along the winding paths and up the stone steps to the large natural arch – the main feature of the park. One of the attractions here is a giant board for Chinese chess (Xiangqi), one of the motifs of the area. Along the road on our way here, we saw roadside murals featuring people playing the game. A house even had a board with pieces integrated into its front fence.

An Australian tourist
at the Ri Chi pavilion

We just sat for a while and took in the scene, eating the fruit we’d bought on the way – mandarins of course, Chinese pears that look like apples, and the first strawberries I’d seen. Huge AND delicious, not like the watery tasteless ones in Australia.

View from the top of the rock arch with
the temple roof below

There was almost no-one around, until a Chinese tour group arrived. All the tourists that I’ve seen since I’ve been in the area have been Chinese, mainly from the region or from places like Hangzhou. No foreigners. We climbed the short walk to the top and just took in the view – hampered a little by the hazy atmosphere, but it looked bit like a Chinese painting with hills slowly fading into the distance. This doesn’t really show in the photographs I took.

On the way down we stopped at the Bao Yan temple which, like many I’ve seen around Quzhou, are a mixture of Doaism and Buddhism. It was nestled into the mountain and surrounded by the forest. An absolutely beautiful place to contempate the important things in life.

The smaller first temple

The main Bao Yan temple

Temple buildings in the forest

The Buddha in the
small temple

The Buddha in the
large temple

Winter is on its way

Lanke Shan tourist map designed as a Chinese chess game

Sunday 18 November - Outdoor

The outdoor stage area

This post shows some of the outdoor activities for the 10th Anniversary celebrations of the Quzhou Technical College. As this was also a type of open day, there were also where were a number of outdoor activities in addition to the official ceremony and performances in the sports stadium. Fortunately it was a perfect autumn day, sunny but cool.

Remote-controlled, solar-
powered model vehicle

There were demonstrations by students of vocational skills such as nursing and graphic design. I was impressed by a group of information technology students building and running solar powered model cars.

Fashion parade with recycled materials

The Chinese are very aware for the need to develop alternative energy technologies. I believe that they are the biggest suppliers of solar panels to Australia.

Almost all apartment buildings and houses have solar powered water heating panels on their roofs, although probably less common though in the cooler north of the country. Also on an environmental theme, there was a fashion parade of clothing made by students from recycled and packaging materials.

More interesting for me were performances by students at a temporary stage in the college amphitheater. Again there was a huge range of performances; from (to me) the fairly banal solo singers and sketch comedy; to ‘international’ performances such as a cheerleader type show; and (to me) the more interesting traditional Chinese culture such as wushu and dancing.

Part of the wushu demonstration

The sport of wushu is both an exhibition and a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts. The wushu troupe started with traditional tai chi which then morphed into a gymnastic and martial arts display. Especially impressive was a group of very young children who gave a fantastic performance.

Traditional Xin Jian dancing

The performances that I really enjoyed were traditional dancing from Xin Jiang, a far western province that has elements of both far-east and middle-east cultures. Xin Jiang food is already one of our favourites, and my favourite local restaurant here is run by people from Gan Su, a province just this side of Xin Jiang.

Modern Xin Jian dancing
- check the footwear

The first dance was quite traditional with elaborate traditional costumes and music – quite elegant and subtle. The second was completely different – similar to belly dancing with an almost Bollywood soundtrack.

I was watching the lead dancer whose movements were extremely fluid and graceful, especially impressive after I noticed that she was wearing heavy work boots. Don’t know what that was about – a political statement, a way of slowing her down, or just a joke!

All-in-all an enjoyable day, and another reason why I decided to live and work overseas rather than just have a holiday.

Included below is a short video of a small selection of the outdoor performances.

Sunday 18 November - Indoor

Nursing students heading to the stadium
in the morning mist

The official speeches

Today was the 10th Anniversary of Quzhou Technical College. It was a huge day in the annual calendar and the biggest event that I’ve seen to date.

I was fortunate enough to be able to sit with the official party (far to the side though) and so I had a good view of the performances – except for a trainee photojournalist who stood in front of us throughout most of the show.

The stadium during the official speeches

One of the dance performances

Her behaviour contrasted my days as a photographer at the Australian Museum where we tried to be invisible and unobtrusive as possible at official events.

As I left my seat to take some photos, I was also politely reminded that I'm no longer a photographer, but a teacher in a foreign country. It's impossible to fade into the background here.

Tribute to Florence Nightingale

Part of the display by
Graphic Arts students -
Human & Nature

Anyway, the ceremonies started at 9am, but students were getting in place at 8am.

There was probably between 250-300 students taking part in the main performance.

First were the speeches and presentations, and with such a big event this took the first hour.

Then it was time for the performances, which ranged from what looked like a tribute to Florence Nightingale (there is large number of nursing students in the college), to flamenco dancing and Confucius.

Performance about water

The costumes were spectacular and there was a striking similarity to the annual Schools Spectacular in Sydney.

The Tribute to Confucius (Kong Fuzi)

Of interest was a massive video screen behind the performers which showed different graphics for each of the performances. This was a very elaborate and expensive production.

The entire ensemble of student performers

As the celebrations also included a type of open day, there were also outdoor performances and demonstrations. The details are in the next post.

The official photos are on the college website.

Included below is a short video of a small selection of the outdoor performances.

Sunday 11 November

LongYou caves complex entrance

I had been planning to take a day trip out of Quzhou for some weeks, but today was the first day that everything came together to achieve it. I’d been to the bus station to check out the process of trying to go somewhere by bus, and felt confident to do it.

LongYou grotto scenic area map

Also Marzena, a Polish English teacher at the adjacent university was also interested in a trip. The weather was perfect, so we set off to the bus depot, bought tickets and waited for our bus to LongYou (Dragon Swimming) Grottoes which was our destination.

A rather solid-looking
signpost

Well, we arrived at LongYou township but it looked like just another town on the flat plain. I had the distinct feeling that I had brought us to completely the wrong place!

Marzena looking at what we thought
we paid 65Yuan for - a hole in a rock,
but the real thing was further on.

I managed to explain to a taxi driver what we were looking for. We were apparently in the right town, and he took us the short 10 minute ride to the grotto complex which had a most impressive entrance.

The entry was also comparatively expensive 65 Yuan ($10AUS) but the venue was well appointed with a number of audio-visual rooms showing videos about the complex – all in Chinese. There was also a polite sign “Please speak Mandarin”.

I’ve mentioned it before, but it is still surprising to find that almost no-one speaks English here, except for the odd “Hello”.

Part of the above-ground complex

The Longyou Grottoes complex is a comprehensive underground network of huge rooms, which were formed by cutting into the rock in ancient times – ie. not naturally formed.

They were discovered in 1992, but no one knows who dug the grottoes or how they were used – for storage, ceremonies, protection, or burial. It has now been developed as a tourist attraction.

According to the scientific statistics, there are 24 carved stone grottoes with their sizes ranging from 1000 to 3000 square meters and scattered in an area of about 0.38 square kilometres.

Descending into the first grotto

Looking up towards the
entrance from the floor of
the first grotto

It all looked fairly uninteresting – until we headed underground.

We entered the first of four major rooms that were incredibly impressive. The main grottoes are about 30m high with 3-4 stone columns supporting the roof, and some have carvings in the walls resembling ancient birds, fishes and horses.

The lighting was minimal and so photography was almost impossible. There were hardly any people around, but we met a Chinese import-export businessman who spoke quite good English so we had an interesting conversation about the underground complex… and cultural differences.

Rock carving in a grotto

Carved rock walls and pillar

We slowly wound our way from grotto to grotto – each similar in dimensions, but with different wall decorations.

For some reason the camera recorded some quite weird colours – maybe due to the different types of lighting used, although they seemed similar to the eye. I was amazed at the lack of security and the fact that we could touch (if we wanted to) these centuries-old walls and rock carvings. This may change with time though. They even had a tacky tourist shop, the first I’ve seen, that sold all the nick-nacks you’d expect – but no postcards!

Our very happy, well-paid
'duk-duk' driver

Photo of a similar vehicle

So, after spending a pleasant hour or so there we had to get back to town. Fortunately for us there was a small 3-wheel duk-duk type ‘taxi’ near the exit to take us back to town - also fortunate for him as he grossly overcharged us.

On the way to the grottoes, we’d seen a large pagoda near the river so we got him to drop us there.

It was another fairly new landscaped recreation complex similar to the on along the river in Quzhou – pagoda, stone sculptures, winding paths, and small alcoves where groups of people could enjoy themselves.

We aim to make more of these excursions before the weather turns too cold and unpleasant, especially now that the first one was pretty successful.

PS: Here’s a website with some photos of Long You, Qu Zhou and Zhuge Liang Bagua Cun, Zhejiang Province.

Saturday 03 November

Arriving at the Cloud Temple

Detail, Cloud Temple

Today I went to Shi Laing (name means Stone Beam) at the invitation of the Calligraphy Society of the college.

The temple is in the rolling hills about 30 drive minutes north-west of Quzhou. The society was one of the groups who gave demonstrations during the visit by the delegation from Red Wing College, Minnesota.

View of the valley from the
pogoda above the temple

Incence burner at the entrance to the
main building

The art of writing Chinese characters is called Chinese calligraphy. It is usually done with ink brushes and in ancient China, calligraphy was one of the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholars.

Calligraphy was the means by which scholars could mark their thoughts and teachings for immortality, and as such, represent some of the more precious treasures that can be found in ancient China. This was the time when only scholars could write and the very few educated people could read it.

Bushwalking in China

New building under construction

The temple is under reconstruction as are most that I’ve seen. Although hundreds of years old, they have been rebuilt many times, because most were made of timber were destroyed by accident or intention.

The current constructions in brick and cement should ensure that they last longer.

What I found surprising was the the ground we walked over had the same type of broken sandstone rubble that is found around Sydney. Climbing the hill to the temple buildings had an eerily familiar feel – just like bushwalking at home, except of course the vegetation is completely different and the foothills were covered in mandarin orchards.

The Catholic church

Church interior

Our next stop was in a small town to visit a Catholic church. It had all of the appearances of having little use, although the locals notified the key-holder as we arrived so that it could be opened and we were able to enter.

It had two quite cute timber confessionals which are much more less private that what I’m used to seeing.

Contrary to the group’s quiet behaviour at the temple, they were quite noisy in the church and displayed little reverence for the location. As Vera (the English teacher acting as translator) said they just see it as a curiosity, not as a place of worship.

The fishing pond

The beautiful white ducks

Finally we arrived at our destination which is a combination fishing spot and restaurant. Fishing is quite popular, and there are many places in the region to fish.

The fishing places are mainly weirs which are fed by a combination of rainfall and the river system and managed by local owners. At some, people pay to fish, at others they only pay if they catch any fish or are just expected to eat at the on-site restaurant. After a walk around the area, we headed in for what was to be a huge banquet lunch, which was possibly going to include one of the beautiful white ducks we saw inhabiting the weir.

Lunch, and just over half of the dishes
had arrived

One of the many rounds of cheers,
or "campai" with Vera on my right

Because of the large group, we occupied two tables, one mainly women and the other mainly men. not sure of the protocols here.

The lunch was delicious and I was reminded again of the huge variety of vegetables and vegetable dishes common to this region – see the photos below for some samples. In the photo at left, the dishes are: bamboo shoots, tofu, shrimp, whole fish, salted roasted fresh peanuts, pickled vegetables, shredded radish and duck stew.

Pouring a sip of fermented
plum liquor

Also on offer was a most powerful type of plum ‘liquid’ that was described as 50% alcohol, which after tasting it, I didn’t doubt. There were far too many toasts for me, so my sips became smaller as the lunch wore on. Fortunately I was able to politely refuse ‘bottoms up’ toasts otherwise I would have been completely plastered.

As lunch drew to a close (I am amazed at how much Chinese people eat at a sitting and yet are not overweight), there was a great flurry to clear the table – something that doesn’t normally happen in restaurants.

Lets play mahjong

I soon understood the urgency to clean up when the table top was removed – underneath was a mahjong table. Mahjong is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players. It uses tiles instead of cards, but is similar to the Western card game rummy.

Apparently the rules vary from region to region, governing everything from the mixing, tile selection and playing. What was really interesting was the the table was electronic, so at the end of a game, the tiles are swept into a central well to be mixed and stacked while another set is raised from below, ready to play. Very impressive.